
GEORGIA ELDREDGE HANLEY 















































































THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 














































THE ONE-EYED 
FAIRIES 


By 

GEORGIA ELDREDGE HANLEY 

♦J 


With Decorations, Pictures, and Diagrams 

By 

JULIA GREENE 



BOSTON 

LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. 


Copyright, 1924, 

By Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. 

All Rights Reserved 

The One-Eyed Fairies 


Printed in U. S. A. 


IRorwoofc press 
BERWICK & SMITH CO. 
Norwood, Mass. 


e e j 

APR 2 ’24 

©C1A777786 

t 





FOREWORD 


T HIS book has been written to tell 
little girls how much fun it is to 
learn to sew and make pretty things for their 
dolls, themselves, and other people. Of 
course, as Sir Bodkin says, “ We can’t have 
gains without pains,” but it is much pleas¬ 
anter to learn in play how to do things the 
right way. This makes it easier for us when 
we are grown up, because we have the 
knowledge “at our finger-tips.” 

I hope that mothers, teachers, and those 
interested in girls will find this book help¬ 
ful, as my experience has been that children 
eagerly grasp and absorb facts presented in 
story and rhyme. 

A number of these sewing-lesson stories 


6 


FOREWORD 


have appeared in the Modern Priscilla Mag¬ 
azine. Acknowledgment is here gratefully 
made for permission to use them. 

Georgia Eldredge Hanley. 



CONTENTS 


PAGE 

I. The King of the One-Eyed Fairies . 13 

II. Sir Bodkin Steps In and Out . . 20 

Using Bodkin. 

III. The Stitchers, Baster and Bunner 28 

Basting and Bunning. 

IV. Dainty Hemmer .... 37 

Hemming. 

Y. The Crewel One .... 46 

Blanket-Stitch. 

YI. Old Doctor Darner .... 54 

Darning Stockings. 

YII. The Doll’s Blanket ... 62 

Catch-stitch. 

VIII. Brother Jim’s Marble-Bag . . 69 

Back-stitch. 

IX. Margaret’s New Middy Blouse . 79 

Making Eyelets. 

X. Auntie’s Birthday Present . . 89 

Cross-stitch. 

XI. A Three-Cornered Tear . . 96 

Mending. 


7 



8 


CONTENTS 


XII. 

XIII. 

XIY. 

XY. 

XYI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 

XXI. 

XXII. 

XXIII. 

XXIV. 


Lacy Frills. 103 

Making Ruffles. 

Jim’s Overalls. 112 

Patching. 

Sewing On Buttons .... 121 
Shank, Pearl, Bone, Cloth. 

A Crewel Frolic . . . .131 

Chain-stitch. 

Margaret Makes Buttonholes . 138 

Making Buttonholes. 

Tucking Grandma’s Apron . . 147 

Marking and Basting Tucks. 

Finishing the Gift .... 157 
Gathering and Putting on Band. 

Rickrack Trimming .... 166 

Sewing Rickrack Braid. 

The Doll’s Christmas Present . 176 
Outline-stitch. 

Some More Christmas Presents . 184 

Hemstitching, Rolled Hems. 

Finishing the Handkerchiefs . 192 

Double Overcasting in Color. 

Lazy-Datsies and French Knots . 200 
Lazy-Daisy Stitch, French Knots. 

A Surprise .209 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


He fell headlong to the floor 

Frontispiece 



PAGE 

“ You can do it! You can do it! ” 


17 

She ran to get a pretty dress . 


22 

Running ribbon in beading 


24 

From the tip of her nose 


30 

Threading needle 


31 

Basting. 


32 

Running. 


33 

“ Mark with pins ” . 


41 

Hemming. 


42 

Blanket-stitch .... 


49 

“ Blanket-stitching is quite easy ” 


51 

Running around the hole 


56 

Darning up and down 


57 

Darning across 


58 

“ Hold the stocking stretched on your hand 

’ 59 

Catch-stitch .... 

• • 

65 

“ I’ll put you to sleep in your little bed ” 

67 

“ Hold the goods lengthwise and cut ” 

71 

Basting and running on outside of bag . 

73 

Basting and back-stitching on inside of bag 

73 

Back-stitching .... 

• * 

75 


9 







10 ILLUSTRATIONS 


Basting and hemming casing on inside of bag 76 


Finished bag. 

Eyelet for casing .... 
She went through some simple exercises 
Making eyelets «... 

Cross-stitch. 

“ Press the letters on the wrong side ” 
The birds were singing 

Mending tear. 

Gathering lace. 

Sewing on lace .... 

“ ’Tis done at last ” . 

“ Ouch! Pm caught ” 

First bastings. 

Third basting. 

Sewing edge of hole 

Sewing around patch 

There they all were .... 

Four kinds of buttons 


76 

77 
80 
86 
92 
94 

98 

99 
107 
107 
109 
113 
116 
116 
119 
119 
122 
125 


Ornamental shank pearl buttons 


127 


Two kinds of buttons .... 127 
Coming up the stairs singing to herself . 132 

Chain-stitch.134 

“ Follow a thread of the goods ” . . 140 

Bar half-way around .... 142 




ILLUSTRATIONS 


11 


Bar.142 

Overcasting half around .... 143 

Buttonhole-stitch ..... 144 

Finished buttonhole .... 144 

“ Measure one inch up from the hem top ” 150 

Basting first tuck.152 

Tucks basted ready for stitching . . 154 

“ I stitched ’em myself ” . . . . 159 

Basting gathers to band .... 161 

Basting down band.162 

Sewing on rickrack.170 

“ I’ll need to wear my apron gay ” . . 174 

Outline-stitch.180 

“ My doll will be glad on Christmas ” . 181 

“ Fold each square over diagonally ” . 186 

Hemstitching.187 

Hem rolling.190 

First overcasting.194 

Second overcasting.196 

Blanket-stitch.196 

Wrapping up her Christmas gifts . . 198 

a For Mother as a surprise ” . . . 202 

Lazy-daisy stitch.203 

French knots.205 

“A silver wrist-watch for my birthday! ” 213 






The One-Eyed Fairies 


CHAPTER I 

THE KING OF THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

M argaret allen had just had a 

birthday. Her auntie had given her 
a pretty new work-basket for a present. It 
was lined with pink silk and in it was the 

dearest little needle- 
book of pink satin, 
an emery-bag shaped 
like a strawberry, a 
cunning pair of steel 

scissors, a silver thim¬ 
ble, several spools of black thread and white 
thread of different numbers, a tape measure, 

and beeswax shaped like a tiny lemon. 

13 




14 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


“ Isn’t it just too sweet for anything! ” 
cried Margaret clapping her hands with de¬ 
light. “ Now if there really were fairies to 
help us, just as in the story-books, what lots 
of things I could make. If I knew how I 

could make clothes 
for my doll, pretty 
things for Mother and 
Auntie, and marble- 
bags for Jim. Oh! ” 
she cried out of breath, “ I just wish I knew 
how! ” 

Suddenly she felt funny sharp pricks on her 
hands and arms. Looking down she saw a 
line of little shining figures, some short and 
some tall, come dancing and prancing out of 
her new work-basket. Some had big eyes and 
some tiny-teensy eyes but each had only one, 
however. They looked so comical dancing on 
their skinny legs and waving their skinny arms 












KING OF THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 15 

that Margaret wanted to laugh. Their thin 
bodies shone and glistened in the sunshine as 
they skipped across her lap and upon the table 
beside her. Then they sang this song: 

“You can do it! You can do it! 

We can always help you sew it! 

With a piece of thread for harness 
And your thimble bright to push us! ’ ’ 


“Oh! Oh! ” cried Margaret her eyes very 
wide open indeed, “ can you really? Who are 
you? ” 



Then out of the line stepped the largest one 
of all. He placed his hand on his heart and 
made a very low bow before her and sang: 


16 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


“How do you do, My Lady, 

We’ve come at your command. 

You wished the help of fairies, 

We’re the One-Eyed Fairy Band. 

We hide inside your basket, 

And keep so very still, 

Until you call upon us, 

Then we’ll help you with a will.” 

“ How wonderful! Thank you! ” cried 
Margaret eagerly. “ What is your name? ” 

“ I am Sir Bodkin. Some call 

/ 

me Tape Needle. Anyway, I’m 
King of the One-Eyes/’ he an- 
Jj. swered proudly. “ I’m the largest 
of all and not needed so often to 
M help. There are many fine workers 
X among us, I can tell you. Just say 
^ the word and we’ll show you what 
we can do.” 

“ I’m so glad,” said Margaret, “ for there 
are lots of things I want to learn how to 
make.” 



KING OF THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 17 


The Fairies danced faster and faster in their 
joy at finding such a dear little girl for a 
friend and mistress. They sang: 


“When needlecraft you’d like to know, 
Just call on us to help you sew. 

Our stitching steps we love to do, 
So let us show them all to you. ’ ’ 



“ Thank you, kind Fairies/’ cried Margaret. 


“ I’m so happy. Won’t Mother be surprised! 
I’m just crazy to begin! ” 







18 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

All the Fairies waited breathlessly to know 
who would be the first to show Margaret 
what he could do. 

“ Your Ladyship, it is fitting that the King 
should be the first to show what he can do/’ 
said Sir Bodkin standing very stiff and 
straight. 

“ Oh, of course,” replied Margaret and was 
about to ask him to tell her what he could do 
when she heard her mother’s voice outside 
her door, calling to her. The Fairies sang: 

“ Stick to us, stick to us, 

Then you’ll never, never fuss. 

Good-bye, good-bye, we must away, 

We’ll come again another day.” 

They slipped quickly off the table and hid 
in the work-basket. 

The King waited until the last one was out 
of sight then he said with a bow, “ We’re 
very glad to know you, My Lady. Just call 


KING OF THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 19 

my name when you need help.” Then he, 
too, slipped away from off the table and into 
the work-basket. 



“Aren’t they just too funny and dear! ” 
laughed Margaret to herself as she put the 
work-basket on her table and ran off to answer 
her mother. “ Now I must think up some¬ 
thing nice to make for my doll,” she said to 
herself. 




















) 


CHAPTER II 

SIR BODKIN STEPS IN AND OUT 

“£1IR BODKIN! Sir Bodkin! ” called 
j/j) Margaret next day to the King of the 
One-Eyed Fairies, who lived in her work- 
basket. 

“Pm coming, My 
Lady! ” she heard a tiny 
voice answering from 
the needle-book. 

Margaret looked very 
much excited, for this 
was the first time she 
had called her wonder¬ 
ful new friends, the One-Eyed Fairies, to 
help her. 

Sir Bodkin came sliding quickly out of the 

20 




SIR BODKIN STEPS IN AND OUT 21 

work-basket and climbed upon the table be¬ 
side his little mistress. With a smile on her 
face she was watching him, for he was a very 
dignified little fellow indeed. Holding him¬ 
self up straight and bending his body forward 
stiffly he made her a low bow. 

“ Good day, My Lady Dear,” he said; 
“ what may I do to-day to help your Lady¬ 
ship? ” 

“ What can you do? ” asked Margaret. 

“ I can run the ribbons in your doll's 
dresses, put the drawing-strings in a marble- 
bag or a sewing-bag. I can draw the ribbons 
and tapes through your pretty underwear and 
lots of other things too numerous to mention. 
Just put a piece of ribbon in my one eye and 
watch me work! ” he answered eagerly to his 
new friend. 

“ Indeed I will this minute! ” cried Mar¬ 
garet. She jumped up and ran to her doll's 


22 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

bureau to get a pretty dress trimmed with 
lace beading around the waist and sleeves. 
Then she took a roll of narrow pink satin 



ribbon from her own bureau and hurried back 
to the table. 

“ Here we are/’ she said to the tiny King, 
holding up the dress and ribbon for him to 


see. 


























SIR BODKIN STEPS IN AND OUT 23 

“ Very pretty, very pretty. Now measure 
how much ribbon you’ll need to run around 
the waist and to tie in a bow at the back when 
finished,” said Sir Bodkin. 

After Margaret had measured the ribbon 
the right length she cut it 
from the roll with her new 
scissors. 

“ Put it neatly in my 
eye and then we’ll start,” 
the Fairy King told her. 

No sooner said than done. 

“ Put your right fingers 
on my head,” ordered he. Margaret did 
as she was bidden. Holding the dress in her 
left hand, she put her pink fingers on Sir 
Bodkin’s head and off he stepped; slipping 
his foot through the slits in the lace beading 
at the back of the little dress where it fast¬ 
ened he sang: 






24 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


“In and out, in and out, 

I hold the ribbon nice and flat, 

I gently pull it after me, 

And soon we’re finished, one, two, three!” 



Runnm^ ribbon in beading 


Sir Bodkin hopped out at the end. 

“ How’s that for fast? ” he said jumping 
back to the table-top. 

“ That’s splendid! ” cried Margaret. Then 
she cut the ribbon for the sleeves after care¬ 
fully measuring how much was needed to go 
around the beading and tie in a bow when 
finished. Each piece was put in the King’s 
eye one at a time and run through the lace 
beading nice and flat. Sir Bodkin’s blunt 
toe made it easy to go in and out the openings 
without catching in the lace. At last the 
ribbon was all in and the dress slipped on the 
























SIR BODKIN STEPS IN AND OUT 25 

doll. The tiny King stood off to see how 
sweet she looked in her dainty dress after her 
little mother had tied the bows. 

“ I never did that so quickly before,” said 
Margaret. 

“ It’s all in knowing how,” replied Sir 



Bodkin looking very wise indeed out of his 
long one eye. 

“ To be sure,” said his little mistress, “ and 
Fm so happy because soon I’m going to 
know how to sew and make lots of pretty 
things.” 

“ Indeed you are, My Lady,” said Sir 
Bodkin; “ just call on us and you’ll always 
find us ready. But don’t forget that: 












26 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


* * Every little housewife should be a seamstress, too, 
Call the One-Eyed Fairies, when there’s needle¬ 
work to do. 

Clean white fingers guide us, helped by thimble 
trusty, 

Slip us through an emery-bag, if you find us rusty. *' 

‘Til remember that,” Mar¬ 
garet promised. “ Oh! Sir 
Bodkin, look at all your sub¬ 
jects! ” she said laughing. 
The King turned around and 
saw all the shining, glinting 
little One-Eyed Fairies peep- 
ing out curiously from the 

“Stick to us, stick to us, 

Then you’ll never, never fuss,” 

they were singing in a happy chorus. 

“ To your places! ” ordered their King and 
they all disappeared. Then he made a low 
bow to Margaret and slipped away into the 






SIR BODKIN STEPS IN AND OUT 27 

work-basket. Margaret laughed happily and 
ran off to show her mother what Sir Bodkin 
had helped her to do. 



\ 


CHAPTER III 

THE STITCHERS, BASTER AND RUNNER 

M ARGARET held up the little doll's 
dress her mother had cut out for her 

to make. 

“ I wish that the One-Eyed Fairies would 

come and help me 
sew it together,” she 
said to her doll. She 
then took her work- 
basket and sat down 
by the table. 

“ Sir Bodkin,” she 
softly called. 

“ Here I am, My 
Lady,” she heard Sir 
Bodkin’s tiny voice answer from the needle- 
book in the work-basket. In a second the 






BASTER AND RENNER 


29 


King of the One-Eyed Fairies hopped out of 
the basket and right up on the table beside 

her. 

“ What can we do for you to-day, My 
Lady? ” he asked bowing low. 

“ I would like to sew my doll's dress. Will 
you show me how? ” replied Margaret. 

“ That I will. Come all you Stitchers! ” 
he cried as loud as he could. 

Out of the work-basket came a line of One- 
Eyed Fairies; some tall and thin, some short 
and fat. They danced on Margaret's table, 
holding hands and singing this song in their 
comical way: 

“Oh, we can baste and we can run, 

And we can overcast. 

We hem and gather, fell and tuck, 

We all work very fast. 

Please have the thread the proper length, 
And just the proper number, 

Then if you keep us shining bright, 

We’ll work and never slumber.” 


30 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


11 Well done, my hearties! ” cried Sir Bodkin 
proudly. “ Now, Baster, you jolly rogue, 
show her how to baste the seams.” 

From the line a large One-Eyed Fairy 
stepped out. 

“ Some thread in my eye and we’ll start,” 
he said. 

“ Remember the proper length,” said 



Baster, as Margaret took up the spool of 
basting-thread. 

From the tip of her nose to the end of her 
arm, Sir Bodkin said was the proper length. 














BASTER AND RUNNER 


31 


When Margaret had measured the basting- 
thread she cut it from the spool with her 
scissors. 

“ Thread with the end that leaves the spool 
last,” the King told her, “ then it will not 
snarl and knot so.” 

Margaret held the cut end between her left 
forefinger and thumb and twisted it into a 
point with her right 
forefinger and thumb. 

Then she took Baster 

in her right fingers and 
put the thread through Thread! 

needle 

his big eye. Pulling 
it through about one-third she made a knot 
in the other end by twisting it around her 
left thumb and forefinger. 

“ Now he’s harnessed and ready to begin,” 
said Sir Bodkin. He told Margaret to put 
her silver thimble on the middle-finger of her 



32 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

right hand and push Baster, while her thumb 
and forefinger held him round the waist. 
Baster then hopped on the seam one-half inch 
from the edge. He took quick long steps 
singing: 


‘ ‘ Ha, ha, ho, ho, I’m gay and free, 
Basting is the sport for me. 

With skip and slide I hurry on, 

My work is short, just like my song. ” 



Both seams of the simple dress were soon 
basted. 

“ Now, Runner,” said Sir Bodkin, as Baster 
slid back to his place on the table. 

Margaret harnessed Runner, a medium¬ 
sized One-Eyed Fairy with a small eye, using 
number 60 thread, the proper length and the 
same color as the dress, but no knot this time. 










BASTER AND RUNNER 


33 


Runner took tiny running-steps right in 
Baster’s tracks. But before she began to run 
she took three back steps, where the seam 
began, to fasten the thread. She sang: 

“I run along, neat and fast, 

And sew the seam so it will last. 

In and out the thread goes, too, 

The fastening holds it firm and true! 

Now take three back steps at the end 
So it will not rip out, my friend. ’ ’ 


Running 



First one seam then the other was stitched, 
after which Margaret snipped the thread and 
Runner danced back to her place on the table. 

All the One-Eyed Fairies stood in a stiff 
line. 

“You must be tired standing so long/’ said 
Margaret. 

“ We are,” said their King. “ It would be 











34 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


pleasant if we had a pincushion to rest our¬ 
selves in.” 

“ The very thing! ” cried Margaret. “ IT1 
get the pretty tomato pincushion Mother 
gave me the other day for my work-basket.” 
She ran eagerly out of the room and soon 

1 




returned with a pincushion 
in her hand that looked just 
like a red ripe tomato. 

“Now you can rest,” she 
said placing it on the table. 
In a jiffy all the tired little 
One-Eyed Fairy Stitchers 
had stuck their sharp little 
toes down deep into the to¬ 
mato pincushion. Then they 
stood up very straight, harnessed, ready and 
waiting until their turns came to help. 

“ This is better,” said Sir Bodkin with a 
sigh of relief. “We can stay here until the 




BASTER AND RUNNER 


35 


work is done, for we don’t have to go 
back to the needle-book every time. We 
can wait outside until the piece of work is 
finished.” 

“ I can put the pincushion in the work- 
basket when we’re through at night, so you’ll 
be in your own house,” said Margaret. 

“ That will be delightful,” said Sir Bodkin; 



“ thank you, My Lady. Shall we do the 
hem to-day? ” 

“ I think not to-day for I must go and study 
my lessons now. To-morrow we’ll finish the 
dress,” said his little mistress. 

“ Very good,” replied Sir Bodkin. “Just 



36 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

fold your work up neatly and lay it in the 
work-basket on top of us.” 

“ Thank you all so much,” said Margaret 
to the One-Eyed Fairies as she placed the 
pincushion in the work-basket and laid the 
doll's dress, neatly folded, on top. 

The One-Eyed Fairies nestled down in the 
red tomato pincushion very comfortably and 
waited for to-morrow to come so they could 
show their little mistress how to hem the 
pretty dress she was making for her doll. 


CHAPTER IV 

DAINTY HEMMER 


N EXT day Margaret ran happily home 
from school. She put her books, hat 
and coat in the closet and then rushed up to 
her room to finish her doll's dress. 

“ Goody me, such 
dirty hands! I must 
go to the bathroom 
and give them a 
good scrubbing with 
soap and water be¬ 
fore I touch my 
work," she said im¬ 
portantly to Sir Bodkin, who sang: 



il Clean white fingers, 
Needles shining bright, 
Will help the sewing, 

To go along just right.” 
37 






38 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

“ Sir Bodkin,” she said to him, when her 
hands were clean and dainty again, “ I hope 
you and the One-Eyes enjoyed your rest in 
the pincushion.” 

“ Indeed we did, My Lady, thanks to you,” 
he replied as Margaret lifted the red tomato 
pincushion, in which they were sticking, out 
of the work-basket and placed it on her table. 
He then stepped on the table-top ready to 
direct the hemming of the doll's dress. 

“ All ready, My Lady? ” he asked eager to 
begin. 

“ Yes,” replied Margaret. 

“ Before we begin, have you any pins, My 
Lady? ” said Sir Bodkin. 

“ Only a few in my pincushion on my 
bureau,” replied Margaret. 

“ We better have plenty, because they will 
be needed from time to time as we do our 
work,” the tiny King told her. 


DAINTY HEMMER 


39 


“ Very well, I’ll ask Mother for some more,” 
said Margaret and went out of the room to 
her mother’s sewing-room. When she came 



back she had a whole paper of pins in her 
hand. 

“ That’s the ticket,” said Sir Bodkin; “ take 
some out and stick them in the red tomato 
with my boys and girls.” Then he directed 
as follows: 

“ Slip the dress on your doll and mark with 
pins how long it should be when finished. 
Then slip it off and baste along the hem edge 
to hold it firm.” Then Sir Bodkin told Mar¬ 
garet to get out her tape measure and measure 


40 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


the width of the hem from the edge of the 
dress to the top of the hem to be sure it 
was even all around. 

“ Trim off with your scissors where it is 



too deep,” Sir Bodkin said, and Margaret 
followed his directions. 

“ Now turn in the hem top one-quarter inch 
and crease it with your nail or pleat it with 
your fingers, then baste it to the dress,” the 
King said and with hop, skip, and jump that 
jolly fellow Baster did his work. 

Sir Bodkin then called Hemmer, a dainty 
little One-Eyed Fairy. Margaret was about 
to harness her with the same thread she had 



DAINTY HEMMER 


41 


used for Runner but it wouldn’t go into her 
eye. 

“ It’s not the proper number,” said Sir 



Bodkin. Margaret tried some finer thread, 
number 80. 

“ That’s better,” she said as it slipped 
easily through Hemmer’s little eye. 

After taking two back steps on the edge of 















42 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

the hem to fasten the thread, Hemmer began 

to step daintily along, singing: 

* ‘First through the dress, 

Then through the hem, 

And now we do it all over again. 

Stitches must not on the right side show, 

So put me through lightly as onward we go. ’ * 



“ I love hemming! ” cried Margaret as 
Hemmer slipped through the dress and then 
through the hem edge with Margaret’s little 
pink thumb and forefinger holding her, and 
her silver thimble on her middle-finger pushing 
her. Margaret’s left hand was holding the 
hem. 

“ Goody me, it’s all sewed! ” cried Margaret 






DAINTY HEMMER 43 

when the thread was fastened at the end and 
snipped off with the scissors. 

“ Now turn over the tiny hems one-eighth 
inch on the wrong side around the neck and 
sleeves and down the slit in the back and 
crease them/' ordered Sir Bodkin. “ Then 
turn one-quarter inch over all around again 
for width of the hems. Press them flat as 
you go along,” said the King. 

Margaret did this, creasing one turn then 
the other. 

“ Come, Baster! ” called Sir Bodkin and 
soon he had all these tiny hems basted along 
their tops so Hemmer could come after him 
and finish them with her dainty steps. 

When all the hems were finished and threads 
fastened, Sir Bodkin cried, “ Pull out your 
bastings and be careful when you do it! 

Margaret laughed to herself to hear him 
order her around. 


44 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

“ How shall I fasten the dress on my doll? ” 
she then asked. 

“ Suppose you trim it first, then we’ll 
decide,” said the King. “ How would you 
like some kind of bright-colored hand-stitching 
around neck and sleeves? ” 

“ Oh, that would be lovely! ” cried his little 
mistress, “ but I’ll have to do that another 

day for I want to run 
out and play a while in 
the yard now.” 

Sir Bodkin and all 
the One-Eyed Fairy 
Stitchers sat up very 
stiff and straight in the 
red tomato pincushion 
as Margaret picked it 
up and put it in her work-basket. 

“ Thank you all so much,” she said to them. 
On her way out to play she showed her mother 








DAINTY HEMMER 


45 


how much she and the One-Eyes had done on 
her doll’s dress. 

“ To-morrow we’ll trim it and put on the 
fastenings,” she said happily. 



CHAPTER V 

THE CREWEL ONE 

M ARGARET had finished her doll's 
dress as far as the plain sewing and 
was now ready to call Sir Bodkin to help her 
trim it with fancy stitching. 

She took from her work-basket the pin¬ 
cushion, where they all were resting, and 

softly called his name 
as she placed it on 
her table. The King 
stepped out, made a 
very low bow and 
climbed up to Margaret's hand and stood 
there. 

“ Here I am right on the job,” he said 

proudly. “ What are your commands for 

to-day, My Lady Dear? ” 

46 






THE CREWEL ONE 


47 


“ Don’t you remember you were to tell 
me how to do the fancy stitching on my 
doll’s dress for trimming? ” Margaret re¬ 
plied. 

“ To be sure. That I will gladly,” he 
answered. “ All out, everybody! ” he then 
called to his subjects. 

The One-Eyed Fairies rushed out pell-mell, 
some from the needle-book and \ %u 

others from the pincushion. They 
all met on the table-top and danced 
joyfully, then stood in a straight 
line, waiting for orders. Sir Bodkin, 
from his perch on Margaret’s hand, 
looked them over to see which one 
should be called to help. 

“ Come here, you Crewel One,” 
the King called. A very big-eyed fairy 
with a sharp toe stepped forward. 

“ He’s not really cruel, My Lady, just a 






48 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


fancy-acting fellow. He's an artist," Sir 
Bodkin explained to his mistress. 

“ Tell, sir, what you can do to make the 
world beautiful! " he then said to Crewel, who 
began to sing this song: 

“I weave the woolen threads so bright, 

And silk and cotton, too. 

All in and out and ’round about 
To make the pattern true; 

A pretty trimming on your dress, 

Your rompers or your smock, 

I also make the blanket-stitch 
For edging ’round your frock. ’ ’ 

“ That's the very thing for this dress! " ex¬ 
claimed Margaret clapping her hands. “ Oh, 
let's begin, dear Crewel. I've some lovely 
pink wool thread here in my knitting-bag." 

She cut a length of the yarn and Sir Bodkin 
showed her how to loop it around Crewel's 
head and then squeeze it between her thumb 
and forefinger so it would slip easily into his 
big eye. Crewel stepped on the back of the 


THE CREWEL OXE 


49 


dress at the left side of the neck. He took 
two tiny back steps on the wrong side to 
fasten the thread. Margaret held the edge 
of the neckline over her left forefinger and 
held the thread down with her left thumb, so 
Crewel could slip over it when making the 
blanket-stitch. He then sang as they worked: 


‘•'Back from the edge 
I step iii, you know, 

Towards you, 'neath the edge, 
I stick out my toe. 

Then I slide o'er the thread 
You are holding for me; 
Blanket-stitching is pretty. 
Quite easy, you see. ? ? 



blanket-Stitcb 


They stitched from left to right, all around 




50 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

the neckline of the dress, fastening the thread 
securely at the end. Then stitched around 
each sleeve edge in turn the same way. The 
blanket-stitches made a pretty finish to hold 
the hems around the neck and sleeves and 
also made a nice firm edge. 

It was great fun holding the thread while 
Crewel jumped through the cloth, stuck his 
toe out under the edge and over the thread. 

“ It's just like jumping rope,” said Mar¬ 
garet, “ and how fast it goes, too! ” 

“ You have to be careful to take even 
jumps from one stitch to the other,” said the 
King, “ or it won’t look so pretty. If you 
wish, My Lady, you can make a different 
pattern by varying the length of the stitches.” 

“ It’s been great fun. Now my doll’s dress 
is trimmed. Thank you so much, dear 
Crewel,” said Margaret as she snipped the 
last thread. 


THE CREWEL ONE 


51 



"BtaftKet-Stitchir><> is pretty 
Quite easy ^you see ” 
























52 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


That graceful fellow bowed and sang: 

“You’re very welcome, Lady Dear, 
’Tis fun for me, you know; 

And while I’m skipping in and out, 
You’re learning how to sew!” 



Sir Bodkin looked very happy and very 
proud of his artistic subject. 

The Crewel One stepped to the table and 
into the tomato pincushion. In 
his eye was hanging some of the 
pink wool thread. 

“ To fasten your doll's dress 
at the back, I would suggest 
that you use ties of ribbon or of the wool 
thread,” said Sir Bodkin. “Which do you 
prefer, My Lady? ” 

“ I think tie-strings of the wool thread 
would be pretty,” replied Margaret. 

“ Then cut two lengths, long enough to tie 
in a bow, and fasten an end of each to each 
side of the neck at the back,” Sir Bodkin said. 


THE CREWEL ONE 53 

Margaret measured the thread, put each 
strand separately in Crewel's eye, then he 
sewed each piece securely to 
the dress. Margaret slipped 
the finished dress on her 
doll, tied the strings, and 
held her up to be admired. 

The little One-Eyed Fairies 
looked very much pleased. 

Margaret thanked them and 
pulled all the threads out of their eyes so 
they could rest better in the needle-book, 
in the work-basket. 

When they were out of sight, Sir Bodkin, 
too, waved a fond farewell and disappeared. 





CHAPTER VI 


OLD DOCTOR DARNER 

O UCH! my knee. Such a spill! Oh! 
look, too, at the big hole in my 
stocking! ” cried Margaret limping in from 

school one day. “ Whatever 
shall I do to mend it? ” 

On the table beside her 
stood her work-basket. Mar¬ 
garet just naturally looked 
that way for help. She knew 
where she could find it when 
in trouble. 

Sure enough, in a second, 
she saw her little friend, Sir 
Bodkin, come hopping quickly 
out of the basket. 



54 


OLD DOCTOR DARNER 55 

“ Well, well, in trouble I see,” he said to 
Margaret, who looked very unhappy indeed. 

“ Oh! you cunning man! I know I never 
could do without you and your Fairies! ” she 
cried, now smiling and looking so relieved. 
“ Maybe you can help me? ” 

“ Indeed we can. You need a doctor here 
to make some repairs, Fm 
thinking,” he said wisely. 

Then he went over to the 
work-basket and called in a 
loud voice: 

“ Doctor Darner! How 
about a little help here! ” 

From the work-basket came 
the sound of scrambling. 

“ Just so, just so,” replied a 
gruff voice as a large One-Eyed Fairy came 
hustling and bustling out of the work-basket 
and up to Sir Bodkin and Margaret. 




56 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


“ Take a good look and give us your ad¬ 
vice/' said the King. 

Doctor Darner looked very carefully at 
the torn stocking Margaret held in her 
hand. 

“ Two strands of black darning cotton, 
please/' he said. 

Margaret got some out of the work-basket 
and cut off a length. She squeezed the 

thread the same way as 
she had the wool for 
Crewel so the loop would 
slip easily in Doctor 
Darner's eye. Then she 

Rar>nit^around P ut her fingers on him 
the bole and be began to sing: 

11 Hold the stocking stretched on your hand, 
While at the edge of the hole I stand. 

’Round it now we’ll take a run 
To keep it from stretching before the work’s 
done. 



OLD DOCTOR DARNER 


57 


Up and down, across the hole we go; 

Run, jump, run, row after row. 

From side to side run, weave, run, 

Over this thread, under that, till the darn¬ 
ing’s done.” 

Old Doctor Darner and Margaret worked 
very busily to fill in the great hole in her 
stocking. When it was mended, he took a 
little rest in the pincushion for a minute. 
Then he turned to her and said, 
looking very wise, indeed: 

“ Some day, you will learn 
how to mend other rips, tears, 
and holes.” 

“Oh,” cried Margaret,laugh¬ 
ing ; “ that will be fine ’cause 
Mother says I seem always to 
be needing a dose of thread and needle.” 
She then tested the darn in her stocking by 
pulling it this way and that to see if the 
stitches were close enough together, just as 







58 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 




Doctor Darner told her to do. It seemed all 
right. 

“ Now your stocking’s as good as new,” 
said he, bowing very low. 

“ Thank you so very much,” said Margaret 

truly grateful. Then 
he hurried away to 
his place in the needle- 
book. 

“ Isn’t he a nice 
DarftmJ across** 0 1d fellow? ” said Mar¬ 
garet to Sir Bodkin when Doctor Darner had 
gone. 

“ Indeed he is, even if he is a little gruff in 
his manner at times,” replied the King. 

“ Mother always wanted me to learn how 
to mend my stockings and I never would. 
Now she’ll be so pleased when I show this 
one to her mended instead of torn. Mothers 
have a lot of unpleasant things to look at 








OLD DOCTOR DARNER 


59 


sometimes, don't they? ” she asked the tiny 
King, who was walking up and down the 
table-top in a very kingly manner. 

“ Indeed they do, My Lady,” he re¬ 
plied, “ but I don’t think your mother will 
have as many now as she had before you 
met us.” 



“ That’s so. I mean to ask her to let me 
try to darn one of her stockings and one of 
Father’s socks, soon. But I am afraid it will 
be a long time before I want to try one of 










60 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

Brother’s. He does get the worst holes in 
his that I ever saw! ” she said shaking her 
head. 

“ Boys are that way and have been ever 
since I can remember. But just make up 
your mind some day to try one of his and I 
am sure you’ll find it easier than you ex¬ 
pected.” Sir Bodkin smiled wisely at his 
little mistress. He knew boys, but he also 
knew that Margaret was a very brave little 
girl who wouldn’t let a big hole in a stocking 
frighten her. 

“ Thank you, Sir Bodkin. I won’t forget 
what you say. I’ll run off now and show 
Mother how smart I’ve been,” she said as she 
limped out of the room. In a second Sir 
Bodkin heard her running along the hall just 
as usual. 

“ Her knee is mended, too,” he said smiling 
to himself. Then he took a good look around 


OLD DOCTOR DARNER 


61 


to see if everything in the work-basket was in 
order. 

“ It's time we all had an emery plunge,” he 
was saying to himself as he slipped quietly 
into the basket. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE DOLL’S BLANKET 

NE day in early spring 
Margaret was making 
up her doll’s bed with its clean 
white sheets and pillow-slips. 

“ Dear child, it seems to me 
you are not warm enough this 
weather. You should have a 
warm blanket to sleep under. 

I’ll ask Mother for 
something to make 
one,” she said. Smil¬ 
ing fondly at her 
child, Margaret went to see what her mother 
might have in her piece-box that could be 

used to make a tiny blanket. 

62 












THE BOLL’S BLANKET 


63 


Now Margaret’s mother was a very wonder¬ 
ful woman. She never turned her little girl 
away empty-handed when she came asking 
for something to make her play more inter¬ 
esting. As it happened, there was in her 
piece-box a piece of lovely white flannel just 
large enough for a doll’s blanket. She gave 
it to Margaret to use. Skipping happily 
away the small mother came back to her own 
room and showed it to her doll-child. 



“ This will make you a pretty blanket,” 
she said. Then she turned to her work- 
basket and called, “ Sir Bodkin! Please bring 
out the One-Eyed Fairies! ” 


64 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


“ Yes! Yes! My Lady! ” he answered 
sliding quickly out of the basket. “You 
now know all of us; which shall it be to¬ 
day? ” All the other shining Fairies were 
following him. They danced and pranced 
out of the needle-book very happy to be 
called. 

“ Baster, first,” said Margaret importantly. 
“ I’m making a blanket for my doll's bed and 
I want to baste the hem at the top and the 
one at the bottom. Then perhaps you will 
tell me the best way to sew them to stay.” 

Sir Bodkin leaned far over 
the edge of the table to 
get a better look at the 
tiny blanket. 

“Is it the right length 
and width for the bed? ” 
he asked Margaret. 

“ Oh, yes. I measured that before I called 





THE DOLL’S BLANKET 


65 


you,” she answered, harnessing Baster with 
basting thread. 

“ Very good. You do not need to turn the 
hems down but once. Flannel will not ravel 
much if quickly held by catch- 
stitching,” said he. 

Margaret and Baster soon had 
the hems basted. 

“ What is ‘ catch-stitching'? ” 

Margaret asked Sir Bodkin. 

“ A stitch used to hold a hem 
down flat and keep the goods 
from ravelling. You can also use 

it for a trimming sometime, if £atcb- 
you want to. You'll need the StlLCb 
Crewel One to help you do this stitching. 
He'll show you how. It's very easy and 
pretty,” he said. 

The Crewel One stepped forward and asked 
for some wool floss in his eye. “ Either pink, 












66 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

blue, or red will do to use for catch-stitching,” 
he said. 

Margaret cut some pink floss the proper 
length and squeezed a tiny loop to put in his 
eye. When harnessed, he told Margaret to 
hold the hem over her left forefinger. She 
took him in her right fingers. He stepped to 
the hem and sang: 

41 Coming towards you as I step 
Away from you I hop. 

First on the blanket, then the hem, 

Go backward, do not stop. 

Evenly I step along 

And leave a crisscross track, 

Which catches fast the blanket hem, 

To do this is a knack. 

Be sure to fasten tight the floss 
At both the ends, my dear, 

Or when it’s put into the wash 
It might come out, I fear. ’ ’ 

They worked busily along each hem. 

“ Oh! how pretty and easy! ” cried Mar¬ 
garet when the little blanket was finished. 


THE DOLL’S BLANKET 67 

“ How sweet the pink stitches look on the 
white flannel at each end.” Then she said 
to her doll, “ Come to me, dear, and Til put 
you to sleep in your little bed underneath 



your pretty, warm, new blanket.’’ She was 
so busy tucking in her doll and singing her to 
sleep that she did not thank Sir Bodkin and 
the One-Eyed Fairies or notice what they were 
doing. With a hop, a skip, and a jump each 




































68 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

one was having a wonderful time taking a 
pleasant plunge foot first through the emery 
strawberry. 

“ We must scrape off our dullness and 

brighten ourselves a bit,” 
said their King standing 
by to see that every one 
got a turn. Then, in the 
firelight, they danced and 
pranced to their hearts’ 
content on Margaret’s table, to show how 
glistening and shining they were again. Soon 
to their needle-book bed they all slipped 
away for a good night’s sleep. 



CHAPTER VIII 


BROTHER JIM’S MARBLE-BAG 

u 

Fairies had been having a long rest in their 
home. They were very glad 
to hear Margaret’s voice 
again. 

“ She wants us! ” they cried 
excitedly. 

“ Hush! ” commanded their 
King, “ she wants me. Every¬ 
body wait until I see who is 
needed to-day.” He hopped 
so quickly out of the work- 
basket that he fell headlong to the floor. 

“ Goody me! ” cried Margaret picking him 

69 



S IR BODKIN! ” called Margaret one 
warm spring day. The One-Eyed 


70 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


up and sticking him in the red tomato pin¬ 
cushion. “ Are you hurt? " 

“ Oh no! that's nothing. One of the chief 
sports of our band is floor-falling. We love 
to slip to the floor so we can be picked up. 
It's very good for your waist-line," said Sir 
Bodkin. 

Margaret laughed. “ You're a funny man," 
she said. 

“ Did you want me for anything to-day, 
My Lady? " he asked. 

“ Yes, I wanted to make a good strong bag 
for Jim's marbles. They're always falling 
out of his pockets and rolling all over the floor 
/or us to step on. We nearly break our 
necks," she replied. 

“ Well, upon my word, that's a shame. 
However we'll soon remedy that. Get a 
piece of heavy, strong cloth, like denim or 
gingham. Be sure it's a dark color, blue or 


BROTHER JIM’S MARBLE-BAG 71 

brown or. green, so it won’t show the dirt, and 
we’ll start,” he said. 

So Margaret hunted through her mother’s 



piece-box again until she found some cloth 
that suited her purpose. 

“ Here we are! ” she exclaimed to Sir 
Bodkin, as she came back to the room. 
Taking her little steel scissors out of the 
















72 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


basket she made ready to cut the cloth as she 
was directed. 

“ That’s the thing; blue denim makes ex¬ 
cellent marble-bags. You can make sewing- 
bags of cretonne or silk and laundry-bags of 
chintz or linen, but marble-bags must be of 
very tough cloth. All bags are about the 
same when it comes to the way of making. 
It’s just good, strong seams with no raw 
edges showing, a proper casing for the 
drawing-strings, and the right kind of openings 
to pull the strings through. The bags differ 
only in size and shape. Now for this bag, 
fold the goods lengthwise, and cut it six 
inches wide and seven inches long,” Sir Bodkin 
told her. 

“ Now, Baster,” said he, “ come out for 
your harness and step along the seam at the 
bottom and up the side, on the right side of 
the bag, keeping one-quarter inch from the 


BROTHER JIM’S MARBLE-BAG 73 

edge.” Baster stepped quickly across the 
bottom, around the corner and up one side. 

“ The fold makes the other side,” explained 


: Bostm<y 


|j Basting 

Ii and 5 

i il and 


* |i running 

• '>* on 

*1 

0 

r 

|j bacK-stttcbm£ 

1 on ° 

j| OutSrde of 

0 

l| inside of 

ii ba s 

II 


l| b <\§ 

Ii 

ii 


4> inches 


Sir Bodkin. “ Now we’ll need a stout Stitcher 
for finishing the seams of this heavy material.” 
So he called out all the Stitchers and selected 
one with a large eye. Margaret harnessed 
him with blue cotton thread, then they were 
ready to sew the seam. 

“ Run along the seam, across the bottom, 
around the corner and up one side a little less 










74 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

than one-quarter inch from the edge beside 
the basting. Take tiny steps close together,” 
he said, “ and fasten the thread well at be¬ 
ginning and ending.” 

When this was done and Baster and Large 
Runner were resting in the pincushion on the 
table, Margaret pulled out the bastings and 
turned the little bag wrong side out. 

“ Run your finger all along the seam inside 
to push it well out to the sewing. Now baste 
the seam a little more than a quarter-inch 
from the edge, so there will be no raw edges 
showing on the finished felled seam,” the 
King said. 

“ Is this a felled seam? ” Margaret asked. 

“Yes, it is a French fell,” Sir Bodkin 
said. 

When the seam was basted, Sir Bodkin 
asked Large Runner to come and back-stitch 
it. 


BROTHER JIM’S MARBLE-BAG 


75 


11 It must be sewed good and strong to 
stand the strain of holding heavy marbles,” 
said Sir Bodkin. 

With Margaret’s right fingers holding him, 
Large Runner went to one end of the seam, 
at the corner of the bag, and began to step 
along, singing: 


BacK- sbitcb*m$_ 



‘‘With three steps to start 
I fasten the thread. 

My toe goes in towards you, 
Comes out one stitch ahead. 
Now backward I step, 

Just one stitch long, 

Step in and step out 
Like the first of this song. 

I am coming towards you 
All the time, you can see, 
And making the stitches 
As close as can be.” 






76 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


Across the bottom, around the corner, and 
up the side they went, busily sewing the 
seam good and strong. At the end the 
thread was fastened with three steps on one 
spot, and then the basting thread was pulled 
out. 

“ One side of back-stitching looks very 
pretty while the other looks something like 
a chain/’ said Sir Bodkin, “ but when done 
properly it’s as strong as machine-stitching, 
and as near to it as we can do.” 





Bastings' 
and ° 

j hemming casing 
on ins'tde of 
bag 

\ 

i 

f 

Finished 

bag 


Margaret was told to turn down the top of 
the little bag one-quarter inch for the first 






















BROTHER JIM’S MARBLE-BAG 


77 


turn and three-quarters inch for the second 
turn. Then Baster stepped down this casing 
for the drawing-string so Large Runner could 
hem it down to stay. When done, Margaret 
turned the bag right side out. On the fold 
side of the bag Sir Bodkin showed her how 
to cut a half-inch slit up and down in the 
casing. This she blanket-stitched with blue 
thread to cover up the raw edges. 

“ The drawing-string goes in and out here,” 
he said. “ You need only one in a marble- 
bag. A shoe-lace will be strong 
enough.” Margaret found an odd 
one of Jim’s. r : 

“ I don’t need to run this in the /Jr. 

for 

casing for you ’cause the metal tip 
will do the work,” Sir Bodkin said. Mar¬ 
garet put the shoe-lace tip in the slit and 
pushed it through the casing until it came 
out again at the slit, with the ends even. 




78 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


“ Tie the ends tightly together and your 
marble-bag is made,” the 
little fellow said to his mis¬ 
tress, as he bowed very low. 

“ Thank you, thank 
you,” said Margaret. 

“ Won’t Jim be tickled to 
get this to hold his snap¬ 
pers, croakies, agates, and 
glassies.” 



CHAPTER IX 

MARGARET’S NEW MIDDY BLOUSE 
ES, he was pleased,” said Margaret to 



Sir Bodkin and the One-Eyed Fairies 
who asked her how Jim liked his marble-bag. 

“ Well, I say it's very pleasant when people 
like what you make for them,” said the King 
wisely. 

“ To-day I want to do something for 
Mother. Of course it's on something for me 
but she had such a lot of baking to do to-day 
she couldn’t finish the new middy blouse that 
I need to wear to-morrow. We wear them in 
‘ gym/ you know, and out in the country in 
the summer,” said Margaret. 

“ In Jim? ” asked Sir Bodkin somewhat 
mystified. 


79 


80 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


“ Gymnasium,” explained Margaret, sud¬ 
denly remembering that her little friends, 
though sharp, might not be so keen on 



knowing about things belonging to the great 
outside world. 

“ What’s that? ” the Fairies all asked 
breathlessly. 

“ Oh,” laughed Margaret, “ it’s a big room 














MARGARET'S NEW MIDDY BLOUSE 81 


with bars and ladders and horses and 
rings in it. All kinds of things to do stunts 
on.” 

She could see her little friends were still not 
understanding very well what she was talking 
about. 

“ I'll show you some of the things we do 
and you will see why I wear easy clothes like 
bloomers and middy blouses,” she said and 
went through some simple exercises of bending, 
twisting, and stepping. 

“ Oh! how funny! ” cried the Fairies. 

“ Hush! ” commanded the King frowning at 
them. “ Very interesting, My Lady,” he 
said turning politely to Margaret, “ and what 
is there about the blouse to be finished? ” 

“ It’s all done but the eyelets for the 
lacings,” she said. 

“ Oh! they're easy and fun,” he told her. 
“ You'll need a stiletto to punch the holes. 


82 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


Then you overcast the edges of the hole so 
the lacings can go in and out easily/ ’ 

“ Where shall I get a stiletto and what is 
it?” Margaret asked Sir Bodkin. She thought 
he was a very funny little man to be always 
asking for the queerest things. 

“ Your Mother must have one in her work- 
basket or her sewing-table or her embroidery- 
bag, Fm thinking,” he replied. 

“ Fll look. I don’t want to disturb her 
’cause she’s so busy. But she doesn’t mind 
when I look through her things if I leave them 
just as I find them,” she told him. “ What 
does the stiletto look like? ” 

“ It’s made either of bone or of ivory or of 
steel and is about four inches long. It’s very 
sharp at one end to pierce the material and 
the other end is usually fancy,” he explained. 

Margaret thought she could find it and 
went out of the room to search for one among 


MARGARET'S NEW MIDDY BLOUSE 83 


her Mother’s things. While she was gone Sir 
Bodkin and the One-Eyed Fairies tried to 
bend and twist and turn as they 
had just seen their little mistress 
doing a short time before. They 
looked very funny as they tried to 
do these exercises. They were so 
stiff. 

“ Is this it? ” Margaret asked 
running back into the room and 
holding up a white bone stiletto. 

Sir Bodkin turned around quickly to look. 
Margaret was laughing to see how funny they 
all looked doing stunts. 

“ Yes,” answered he, “that is what we are 
looking for. Where do you want the eyelets 
placed, My Lady? ” 

Margaret took up the new white middy 
blouse to show the King the slit down the 
front. 







84 TEE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

“ This makes it easier to put my head 
through and has to be laced with a lacing 
after I slip it on,” she said. 

“ Three eyelets on a side 
would be about right, I think, 
don’t you? ” he asked Marga¬ 
ret. 

“ Yes,” said she. 

Then he told her to measure, 
with the tape measure, the eye¬ 
let places evenly apart on each 
side of the slit. She marked them with 
a lead-pencil dot one half-inch from the 
edge. 

“ Now we are ready to punch the holes,” 
he said. 

Margaret took the stilet¬ 
to and pushed the sharp 
point up through the two 
thicknesses of goods where 





MARGARET’S NEW MIDDY BLOUSE 85 


each dot was marked. She turned it around 
and around to make the hole evenly shaped. 

“ Some like to punch from the right side 
down, but I prefer to punch from the wrong 
side up,” Sir Bodkin said. 

When the holes were ready Sir Bodkin told 
Margaret to get some fine white twist or 
embroidery cotton. Calling a large-eyed 
Stitcher, the King had Margaret harness him 
ready to begin. 

“ Have your stiletto ready and keep pushing 
it through the eyelet as you go along whipping 
the edge. This keeps the shape nice and 
round,” said the King. “ Now, sir, do your 
work,” he then said to the Stitcher, who 
stepped from the wrong side through to the 
edge of the hole and sang: 

“ First run around the edge, 

We take a little run. 

Then over it and over it 
The stitching is done. 


86 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

Step over to the wrong side, 

Then through to the right 
Not far from the edge, 

And pull the thread tight. 

Then over again, 

And so on, you see, 

Keeping stitches as tiny 
And close as can be.” 

Every few whipping-stitches Margaret 
would leave Stitcher sticking in his tracks on 

the edge and take up the 
stiletto with her right fin¬ 
gers and put it through 
the eyelet from the wrong 
side. This kept the shape 
round. 

“ When you have gone 
around the eyelet edge, step 
through to the wrong side 
liokirrg eyelets an( j f as ten the thread/’ said 

Sir Bodkin. 

This Margaret and Stitcher did after each 







MARGARET’S NEW MIDDY BLOUSE 87 

eyelet was finished. Soon the six were all 
done. 

“ I think it's great fun! ” cried Margaret 
looking with pride at the pretty little round 
eyelets ready for their lacing. 

“ Sometimes eyelets are used in embroid¬ 
ery,said Sir Bodkin, “ so you will know how 
if you ever should wish to do that kind.” 

The One-Eyed Fairies skipped across the 
table and disappeared into 
the work-basket for Marga¬ 
ret’s mother, Mrs. Allen, 
could be heard calling her 
little daughter to come to 
her. 

“ She’ll be so pleased to see 
these and surprised, too,” whispered Marga¬ 
ret to Sir Bodkin as he stood on the table. 

“ Yes, My Lady,” he replied. He made a 
low bow to his little mistress and slipped into 



88 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


the work-basket. Margaret hurried to her 
Mother's room with the finished middy blouse. 

“ Well, I must say you and the One-Eyed 
Fairies certainly are very clever indeed/' you 
could have heard Mrs. Allen remark if you 
had been standing outside her door just then. 



CHAPTER X 

AUNTIE’S BIRTHDAY PRESENT 

HAT a lovely rainy day! ” cried 
Margaret coming into her room 
singing happily to herself. She did not mind 
the rain at all for she was very anxious to 
get to work. It would 
soon be her Auntie’s 
birthday and Marga¬ 
ret wanted to give her 
a present. So Mother 
had bought down-town 
a linen towel with the 
ends finished with hemstitching done by ma¬ 
chine. 

“ You can trim it at one end, above the 
hem, with a design done in cross-stitch,” she 
had said to Margaret. 

89 




90 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

“ That will be pretty! ” Margaret had re¬ 
plied. “ IT1 ask Sir Bodkin how to do it.” 

Margaret now had the towel and a book of 
cross-stitch designs in her hands as she came 
into the room. 

“ I wonder which would be nicer, a design 
or her initials done in cross-stitch? ” she was 
asking herself. 

Looking up she saw Sir Bodkin hopping 
out of the work-basket. 

“ So it’s cross-stitch to-day, My Lady? ” 
he said. 

“ Yes it is. How bright you are to guess,” 
Margaret answered laughing. She showed 
him the towel to be trimmed and waited for 
him to speak. 

“ First of all, we must have some canvas 
fine enough to work eight cross-stitches to the 
inch. We use the threads of the canvas as 
guides where the cross-stitches are to be made. 


AUNTIE’S BIRTHDAY PRESENT 91 


Second, we must have some embroidery 
cotton to make the crosses,” he told Margaret. 

She went to ask her mother for these things. 
They were found in her magic sewing-box, and 
when Sir Bodkin saw her coming back into 
the room with the canvas and blue embroidery 
cotton in her hand he called Baster out to 
help. Baster fastened 
the canvas nice and 
straight to the center 
of one end of the towel, 



on the right side just above the hem. Then 
Crewel was harnessed with a strand of the 
blue cotton in his long eye. 

“ What is the design to be? ” asked Sir 

Bodkin. 


92 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


“ I think it would be very pretty to mark 
this towel, which is for my Auntie’s birthday, 
with her initials,” replied Margaret. “ They 
are the same as mine, ‘ M. A.’ This book 

of patterns shows how 
many squares to use to 
— make the letters.” 

“ Yes,” said the King, 
_ “the letters will be large 
or small according to 
the number of squares 
used. Very good. Now, 
sir, watch your step and 
be sure to step over the 
Cro$>5 -StltCb canvas threads and not 
through them, or we can’t pull them out 
when the work is finished! ” 

The Crewel One, who stood waiting, stepped 
to the wrong side of the towel and fastened 
the cotton with two or three tiny back steps 








































AUNTIE 9 8 BIRTHDAY PRESENT 93 

where the first cross was to be made. Then 
he sang: 

“Step out at one corner, cross, step in another, 

Out again at the third, to the fourth one cross over. 
Now through to the wrong side; to start the next 
one, 

The top thread of each cross, the same way must 
run. 5 ’ 

“ There you are! ” cried Sir Bodkin, “ that's 
the first cross-stitch. The others are just 
like it. Follow the pattern and make a cross- 
stitch where the pattern shows a square." 

Margaret followed the pattern very care¬ 
fully with her eye and guided the Crewel One 
with her fingers to make the cross-stitches in 
both letters. Jauntily they stepped along 
until the work was done and the “ M. A." 
embroidered. Then the thread was fastened 
securely. 

“ Now we are through with the canvas. 
Cut it away from around the letters. Then 


94 TEE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

pull out the threads of what is left very care¬ 
fully from under the cross-stitches and your 
towel is trimmed. Take a warm iron and 
press the letters on the wrong side on some¬ 



thing soft, and the crosses will stand out on 
the right side and look very pretty,” said Sir 


Bodkin. 

“ Then I shall fold it in three lengthwise 
folds as Mother does, with the center on top 
to show the letters, and wrap it up in white 

































AUNTIE’S BIRTHDAY PRESENT 95 

tissue paper! ” cried Margaret. “ Thank you 
three so much. Auntie will be pleased with 
her birthday present, I know.” 

“ You’re very welcome, My Lady, so say 
I and so say they! ” cried the King, very 
much pleased, too. 

After Margaret had run off to show her 
mother the pretty towel finished, Sir Bodkin 
said to his two subjects, 

“ She is a pretty nice little 
girl. She’s always think¬ 
ing up something to do for 
other people.” 

They both agreed with 
him and all three slipped 
into the work-basket to the 
needle-book and went to sleep with the other 
One-Eyed Fairies. 








CHAPTER XI 

A THREE-CORNERED TEAR 


D 


EAR me, it’s so lovely outdoors,” 
sighed Margaret, one day in May. 
She had torn her new dress on a nail when she 
was climbing over a fence. 

“ Mother says it was 
very careless of me and 
I s’pose I can’t go out 
again until it’s mended! ” 
She looked very unhappy 
indeed as she said this. 

“ You can mend it out¬ 
doors,” said her little Fairy friend peeping out 
of the work-basket. “ Sit out in the garden 
under the trees. We’d just love to get out in 

the sunshine,” he finished wistfully. 

96 









A THREE-CORNERED TEAR 97 

“Oh! you dear little things! ” cried Mar¬ 
garet. “ How dull for you to be shut up in 
this stuffy work-basket all the time and never 
get a peep outside. HI take you out now as 
soon as I change my new dress for my old one.” 

When they were in the garden Margaret 
looked at the damage the nail had done to her 
dress. There was an 
ugly, three-cornered 
tear. The King 
called Runner to help 
with the task of mak¬ 
ing the torn place 
look like new. With 
thread the same color 
as the dress for har¬ 
ness, Runner was 
soon ready to begin. Sir Bodkin sat on a 
tiny green vine to direct the work. Mar¬ 
garet took the dress in her left hand, wrong 



98 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

side out, and guided the tiny Fairy with her 

right hand and the work began with this song: 

“O’er left forefinger hold the tear, 

And with the right hand mend. 

Across and back take running steps, 
Beginning at one end. 

Draw edges close, but not too tight, 

Take short runs round the turn. 

To other end run smoothly on, 

’Tis not so hard to learn! ” 









































A THREE-CORNERED TEAR 


99 


While they were working, the birds were 


•ii i»»i« iihikW/; 

* » > i-4-1 


11111111 * ii uifev'r-'-- 
i» ** w % % « r 




OOQ OO 



singing and the sweet 
smell of the flowers 
entranced them. 

When the ugly tear 
was mended and the 
dress made nearly as 
good as new again, Mending tear 
Margaret sighed with relief. 

“ Time was long ago in your great-grand¬ 
mother’s day, young ladies used to tear their 
muslin dresses purposely to show how prettily 
they could mend,” Sir Bodkin told Marga¬ 
ret. 


“ They did? ” she cried in surprise. “ How 
funny! ” 

“ Now to make it look flat, give this mended 
tear a dose of warm iron on the wrong side,” 
Sir Bodkin advised. 

“ Thank you, Your Highness. What 


> > 3 
















100 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

should I do without you and the One-Eyed 
Fairies to help me out of trouble? You’re all 
the most wonderful things! ” cried Margaret 
with shining eyes. 

“ We can’t help it. We’re Fairies! ’Sides 
I’m a King,” he said proudly, “ and ought to 
be different from the rest.” The fresh air 
and sunshine were making him feel very fine 
indeed. 



Some girls and boys called to Margaret just 
then from a neighbor’s garden and she ran 
hastily away to join them. 

Sir Bodkin and the other Needle Fairies 
slipped down into the green grass for a frolic. 













A THREE-CORNERED TEAR 101 

Pretty soon Margaret’s mother came out of 
the house. She saw the dress and work- 
basket lying on the garden seat. 

“ How nicely she mended her dress! ” she 
said. “ I’ll take it in for her,” and gathered it 
and the work-basket in her arms and carried 
them all into the house. The little Fairies 
were frightened to see their house taken 
away. Together they huddled around the 
garden seat wondering how in the world they 
would get back again into the big house. 

“ The dew will be very bad for us! ” said the 
King in distress. 

Margaret came running 
back when she heard the 
supper gong. Her bright 
eyes, luckily, spied them 
in the grass. Stooping, 
she picked them up one 
by one and carried them into the house in 



102 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

her hand. She laid them down on a table 
in the hall and went in to her supper. 

Sir Bodkin was very much worried. He 
walked up and down and up and down the 
table-top. 

“ I know we'll be forgotten here and we may 
be lost on the floor! " he said over and over 
to himself. He heard his little mistress after 
supper go out in the kitchen to press her dress. 

“ Oh! perhaps she'll remember where she 
put us! " the poor little King kept saying to 
his subjects. 

Margaret came out of the kitchen and was 
about to go up-stairs when she remembered 
her little friends. Picking them up again in 
her hand she carried them this time safely 
up-stairs to her own room and stuck them in 
the tomato pincushion. 

“ To-morrow I'll give you all a nice emery 
bath," she said to them. 


CHAPTER XII 

LACY FRILLS 


M ARGARET held up the dainty new 
white dress she had been making 
for her doll. It was now all finished except 
the lace frills. 

“ When we sew the lace around the collar 
and sleeves for trimming, your new dress will 
be ready for you to wear to the tea-party to¬ 
morrow/ J said the little mother to her 
doll as she tried on her new dress. 

“ Doesn’t she look sweet! ” whispered all 
the little One-Eyed Fairies to each other, 
peeping out of the work-basket to look at the 
doll in her pretty white dress which they had 
just helped to sew. They were very fond of 

Margaret and her doll. 

103 


104 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

“ Sir Bodkin! ” Margaret called to the King. 

“ Here I am, My Lady/' he answered 

scrambling out of the 
work-basket and up to 
the top of the table. He 
leaned himself against the 
pincushion. 

“ I think we’ll need a dainty Stitcher to 
sew these frills, don’t you? ” his little mistress 
asked him. 

“ Yes, and harness of fine white cotton 
thread,” answered his Majesty. 

He then called all the Stitchers out of the 
work-basket. They were up on the table-top 
in a twinkling, waiting for their King to choose 
those needed for the work. Two Stitchers 
were selected, one larger than the other. 

“ One for gathering the lace and one for 
sewing it on,” explained Sir Bodkin. 

“ Before you begin, take a plunge through 







LACY FRILLS 


105 


the emery to make you glisten and glide,” 
said the King. 

Margaret took out her 
emery-bag and held it for 
the Stitchers to take several 
quick plunges. They waited 
in the pincushion while she 
went to wash her hands, to 
keep the lace clean as it was being sewed on 
the dress. 

The fine Stitcher was harnessed with white 
cotton thread number 80 . The larger one 
was harnessed with the same thread doubled 
for gathering the lace. 

“ Make his harness longer than the frill is 
to be when finished,” said the King. 

“ How much lace shall I cut off for the 
collar and sleeves? ” asked Margaret. 

Jt This is the rule for the length of a ruffle 
or a lace edging,” said Sir Bodkin and sang: 





106 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


“When making a ruffle 
Or sewing on lace, 

Measure once and a half 
’Round the sewing on space.” 

“ How shall I finish these ends? ” Margaret 

asked when she had meas¬ 
ured and cut a piece of lace 
for the collar. 

“ Tiny Stitcher will hem 
them for you before you be¬ 
gin to gather,” said Sir Bod¬ 
kin. 

It was no sooner said than done. 

“ The lace for each sleeve is sewed together 
at the ends with a French seam,” said the 
King. 

“ Oh, yes, I remember. Sew the ends to¬ 
gether first on the right side, turn the seam, 
and then sew it on the wrong side so no raw 
edges will show, just like we did on the marble- 
bag,” Margaret cried. 






LACY FRILLS 


107 


“ Yes, that’s right. This makes a very 
neat seam,” Sir Bodkin told her. 



“ Mark with pins, the half and quarters of 
each of the three lace frills. Then mark the 
half and quarters of the collar and sleeve 
edges,” Sir Bodkin said and sang this song: 

“Mark the half and quarters of edge and of frill, 
And the gathers will then the space evenly fill.” 

“ Now fasten your gathering thread se¬ 
curely on the right side at one end of the top 
(or straight edge) of the collar lace,” said the 
King. 



























108 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

“ You don’t have to gather all kinds of 
lace, My Lady,” he went on to say; “ in some 
you just pull the cord in the top. Stitcher, 
step evenly along the top and gather the frill. 
Let the needle hang loose at the other end. 
Pin the frill half and quarters to those of the 
collar, right sides together.” 

When Margaret had done this and was 
ready to sew the tiny frill to the collar, Sir 

Bodkin finished the song: 

‘ ‘ Hold the gathers next to you 
When frill is sewed on, 

Then the ruffle will set well, 

And never look drawn. ’ ’ 

“ Draw up the gathering thread to fit and 
wind it around a pin at the end in a figure 
eight. You are now ready for tiny Stitcher 
to overcast the lace on for you,” said the 
King. 

Tiny Stitcher fastened the thread at the 
right end of the collar frill top. Then over 


LACY FRILLS 


109 


the edge he stepped and came back through 
dress and lace towards Margaret. She pulled 
the thread through and he stepped over the 
edge away from her and through again, al¬ 



ways going from her right towards her left. 
Margaret guided him with her right hand and 
held the dress in her left. When the frill was 
sewed on all around the collar, the thread 
was fastened securely at the end and snipped 


















110 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


off. The gathering thread was also fastened 
and snipped. 

“ Now take a gathering-thread the proper 
length for each sleeve frill and fasten it at the 
seam. Then gather each lace frill in turn and 
pin the half and quarters of each to those of 
each sleeve edge and overcast just as you did 
before,” said Sir Bodkin. 

Margaret worked very carefully and soon 
snipped the threads, and put the little 
Stitchers in the pincushion to rest. 

She made some pretty blue 
satin ribbon bows to add to 
the little dress as a finishing 
touch, and sewed them on. 

“ ’Tis done at last,” she 
said, with a sigh of joy, slip¬ 
ping the lovely party-dress on over her doll's 
curly hair. “ You'll be the sweetest doll at 
the tea-party, I know,” she said happily. 






LACY FRILLS 


111 


The tiny King and his subjects danced 
around in an admiring ring. 

“ We thank our little friends very much, 
don’t we, dear? ” Margaret said to her doll. 



CHAPTER XIII 

JIM’S OVERALLS 


OOK out or you’ll tear your clothes! ” 



cried Margaret to her brother Jim 


one day as they climbed through a barbed- 
wire fence out in the fields. 

They were visiting Auntie’s farm. It was 
great fun to go swimming, hunt eggs, feed 
chickens, ride on top of the big hay-loads and 
just be outdoors all the time. Both children 
had exactly the right clothes for such good 
times—middy and bloomers for Margaret, 
blouse and overalls for Jim. Besides these, 
not much else was needed, for Auntie let 
them run barefoot most of the time. 

“ Oh, pshaw! now I’ve done it! Ouch! I’m 
caught! ” the next minute Jim cried out to 
his sister, who was herself clambering very 


112 


JIM’S OVERALLS 


113 



























114 TEE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

carefully over the wire so the sharp little 
barbs would do no damage. 

“ Wait! I'll get you loose! ” Margaret ex¬ 
claimed coming to his rescue. With pulling 
and tugging he was soon free, but a big ugly 
hole was torn in the seat of his overalls. 

“ Would you look at that! And the last 
clean ones I have, too,” Jim said in despair. 
It certainly was a sad accident, for this was 
their last day on the farm and there were lots 
of things to do for the last time. 

“ Never mind. Til mend them for you,” 
Margaret said. “ Jump into your bathing- 
suit and while you’re taking a swim I’ll be 
mending these. Boys certainly are a care,” 
she said to herself with a sigh on her way up 
to her room. But in her heart she was really 
quite delighted at the chance to show her 
sewing skill. 

“ Sir Bodkin! ” she called when she was 


JIM'S OVERALLS 


115 


up-stairs in her bedroom. All the One-Eyes 
were hiding in a pretty sewing-bag that she 
had made to carry them in when travelling. 
She loosened the drawing-string and out 
popped Sir Bodkin. 



“ Well, well, I wondered when you’d be 
calling us out this trip,” he said shaking him¬ 
self and walking around the bureau-top to 
stretch his legs. 

“ What’s the trouble now? I s’pose it’s 
trouble or you wouldn’t be needing us on a 
vacation,” he went on to say. 

“ Yes,” laughed Margaret, “ it’s trouble and 
it needs to be doctored right away.” She 
held up the torn overalls for him to see. 

“ Well, I should say so. Patching is the 
thing for that big tear. Take your scissors 







116 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

and cut off the ragged edges to make the 
hole as round as you can. Have you some 
of the same goods for a patch? ” he asked. 

“ I think Auntie has. I’ll go see,” and Mar¬ 
garet ran off to inquire. 

Sure enough, Auntie had something in her 
scrap-bag that would do very well. Margaret 
ran back eager to begin patching. 


“ Cut a square piece, an inch and a half 

^V/rong side Ri<|bt bide 



First bastings Third basting 

larger all around than the hole. Baste this 
to the wrong side of the garment. Be sure 
the patch runs the same way of the goods as 
















JIM’S OVERALLS 


117 


the overalls,” said Sir Bodkin beckoning to 
Baster, who was sticking his head out of the 
bag. 

While he and Margaret were working Sir 
Bodkin sang: 

“When the piece you attach 
In making a patch, 

Be sure you baste it firm. 

Or while you sew, 

Slipping ’round it will go 
And all over the garment squirm.’ ’ 

Margaret laughed at this song. 

“ Now on the wrong side turn in the four 
sides of the patch and baste them down,” 
said the King. 

They soon had this done. 

“ Snip the cloth all around the edge of the 
hole, turn it under and baste it down to the 
patch. Do this on the right side,” said Sir 
Bodkin. 

“ Hemmer,” he called. She came and was 


118 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

harnessed with strong thread. After that she 
neatly sewed down the edge of the hole to the 
patch on the right side. Then she sewed the 
four edges of the patch to the overalls on the 
wrong side. 

“ Be sure your steps are tiny and firm so 
the patch will stand wear,” the King cau¬ 
tioned. Then as they worked he sang this 
song: 

‘ ‘ The hemming must catch 
The hole firm to the patch 
So the edges will never rip out. 

When patch edges you do 
Hem them firmly, too, 

And the patching will hold good 
and stout /’ 

When the patching was done, Margaret 
held up the mended overalls so Sir Bodkin 
and his helpers could see. 

“ Good work,” said he proudly. “ Looks 
as fine as a patch can. We don’t use patches 


JIM’S OVERALLS 


119 


where they will show if we can help, for they 
aren’t very pretty, but anything useful is not 
to be despised. They are very useful on 
underwear, aprons, table-linen and bed-linen 
and many other things. ” 

Right side Wrong side 




Margaret was sorry to have to shut the 
King and his fairies away again in her sewing- 
bag. 

“ It seems a shame to pull the string so 
tight but as Sir Bodkin says, ‘ In summer we 
One-Eyes have to keep away from the damp 
or we’ll lose our charming brightness,’ ” 









120 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


Jim was delighted when he came back 
from his swim and saw his mended overalls 
ready to put on. 

“ Some day I'll do something for you,” he 
said, “ for ‘ One good turn deserves another/ ” 





CHAPTER XIV 


SEWING ON BUTTONS 


M ARGARET was home again from the 
country. Vacation was nearly over 
and in another week school would begin. 

“ How would you like to look over your 
clothes and see that they are in good order? ” 
her mother said to her one day. “ Wouldn’t 
it be a good plan to sew on the missing but¬ 
tons and see that the others are on firmly and 
not hanging by their eyelids? ” 

“ Sir Bodkin would like it. He can sing 
me a little song all about buttons. He loves 
to sing and tell you what to do, you know,” 
laughed Margaret. 

“ That’s a very good idea. What he has 
to say seems always to be right,” said Mrs. 
Allen. 

Margaret went to her room to look over 

121 


122 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


her clothes. Sure enough, here was a button 
gone and there, one loose. 


“ 'Most everything needs a little dose of 
thread and needle after a vacation, I s’pose,” 
she said to herself. 



When all the garments needing buttons were 
piled on her bed, Margaret called her little 
friend, but he did not respond from the work- 
basket at all. 

<l Whatever is the matter and wherever is 






















SEWING ON BUTTONS 123 

he? ” Margaret asked herself. Then she 
remembered that he and the others were still 
in the sewing-bag she had carried away on her 
trip. She found it hanging on a hook in her 
closet. When she pulled open the draw¬ 
strings, there they all were. 

“ Sir Bodkin! ” she called. 

“ Where are we? ” asked a sleepy voice. 

“ Safe at home again,” replied the little 
mistress. “ I forgot to take 
you out and put you in 
your home. But first Til 
give you all a rest in the 
fresh air in the pincushion,” 
she said and stuck each one 
in as she talked. 

“ What are we to do to¬ 
day, My Lady? ” asked Sir 
Bodkin from the table-top where he stood 
putting his crown on straight. 





w 





124 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


“ I'm getting my clothes ready for school 
next week and there are some buttons to be 
fastened on,” she said. 

“ That’s fun. Bring on your buttons and 
then we’ll know what to do,” said the tiny 
King. 

Margaret obeyed him and brought over the 
garments with missing buttons. 

“ Here’s a slipper-button gone, and a pearl 
one from my dress, a bone one from my under¬ 
waist, one from my dress with the button 
trimming, and one from my coat,” said 
Margaret all out of breath. 

“ First the shoe-button. That’s a shank 
button. Some black patent thread and a 
thick Stitcher with a big eye will soon fix it,” 
he said to Margaret. 

“ Measure your thread and wax it with 
your beeswax, make a knot in one end. Find 
the place where the button was sewed before. 


SEWING ON BUTTONS 


125 


Now, sir, push up from the wrong side of the 
slipper-strap to the right side and straight 
through the shank of the button, then back 
to the wrong side again," he said. 

“ Oh! that's stiff. I had to push him hard 
with my thimble! ” cried Margaret. 

“ That's the way. Now through again 
several more times, then fasten the thread on 
the wrong side and that's done! " Sir Bodkin 
said. 


Thread 
f>hanK 

Trimming 

“ Better give the button on the other 
slipper a few stitches to be sure it doesn't 
come off," he then said when the first was on 
good and tight. They did this. 

“ Bring on the next! " ordered the King. 
Margaret showed him her gingham dress 





126 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

and a pearl button with four tiny holes in 
it. 

“ Come here,” the King then said to a 
medium-sized Stitcher who was then harnessed 
with white cotton thread doubled. When 
the knot was made they were ready to be¬ 
gin. 

“ Cross the center,” the King said to the 
Fairy, who stepped from the wrong side of the 
dress through to the right side and up through 
one of the tiny holes in the button which 
Margaret was holding for him. Then he 
crossed over the center to the opposite hole 
and slid down through to the wrong side again. 

“ Now up through the other hole and cross 
again,” said Sir Bodkin which the Stitcher 
did and slid back to the wrong side again. 

“ See how neat that looks,” said the King 
to Margaret when it was sewed on, as she and 
Stitcher wound the thread round and round 


SEWING ON BUTTONS 127 

underneath the button to make a shank for it 
to play on, and then fastened the thread. 

“ A pretty way to sew on pearl buttons for 

<—d C T2? Ss? Stt? trimming is to come 
Ornamental $HctnK peart out one hole every time 

and go in the other three from it like this,” 
he said taking his toe and pointing on the 
button. 

“ Now for that bone button, clumsy but 
useful,” said the King. It had two holes 
and was sewed on the under-waist, with the 
thread doubled, the same way as the pearl 
one. 

“ Now for the pretty pink pearl! ” cried 
Sir Bodkin who was very fond of that color. 
Margaret brought her dress and the button 
which was cut with a shank on it. It be¬ 
longed down the front of her dress in a row 
with many other buttons. 

“ This goes on very much like the shoe 











128 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


button, but doesn’t have to be sewed so strong, 
for it is only an ornament,” Sir Bodkin ex¬ 
plained. 

When this one was on Margaret brought 



her coat and a 
pretty cloth cov- 


Bone Covered button ^€ici button, all 
smooth on top and metal underneath, with 
a funny little round place of cloth to sew 
through. 

“ You must not show on the wrong side 
where the button is sewed on a coat. If you 
want to make it very strong you may sew 
through a tiny little pearl button, the same 
color as your coat, on the wrong side. But this 
one we shall fasten on the right side blindly 
but quite strong.” The thick Stitcher was 
harnessed with heavy dark thread doubled 
and waxed and knotted. 

“ Catch your thread on the coat, first on 





SEWING ON BUTTONS 129 

the spot where the button is to go and then, 
second, sir, as you know, step through the 
sewing-place underneath the button. Third, 
through the coat again and so on. But 
whatever you do, don’t step through to the 
wrong side so it will show! ” said Sir Bodkin. 
Then the button was sewed securely and the 
thread fastened and snipped. Stitcher rested 
in the pincushion. 

“ You haven’t sung to-day! ” Margaret 
said to the One-Eyed Fairies. 

“ To be sure we haven’t, My Lady! ” their 
King said. 

Then one of the little Stitchers came out 
of the pincushion and began to sing: 

‘ ‘ Sewing on buttons 
And mending your clothes 
Are very good habits, 

As every one knows. 

So mind the old adage, 

You’ll find it quite fine— 

That one timely stitch 
Is sure to save nine! ” 


130 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

Every one laughed and clapped their hands 
at the Fairy who ran back in confusion to the 
pincushion. 



CHAPTER XV 

A CREWEL FROLIC 


S CHOOL had begun, and Margaret was so 
busy for the first few weeks with her 
lessons, her play, and her friends, that she had 
not seen much of her little One-Eyed Fairy 
friends. 

“ It’s much better for her to be outdoors a 
lot this nice weather than sitting indoors 
sewing. Plenty of time for that later on,” 
said the King one day. “ Of course it’s very 
fine to know how to sew, but 1 All work and no 
play makes Jack a dull boy,’ ” he quoted to 
his shining subjects in the work-basket. 

They all agreed with him. 

“ She’ll be needing one of us some day soon, 
you’ll see,” said the Crewel One knowingly to 
the others. 


131 


132 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

Just then they heard Margaret coming up 
the stairs singing to herself. She came into 
her room carrying over her arm a new dress 
of dark blue. She called Sir Bodkin out of 
his home and he came quickly in response. 



“ My new dress is finished and ready to 
wear to school when the weather gets cooler. 
Mother says it should have a bright trimming 
on it. She thought that perhaps 3 r ou could 
think of something pretty, Sir Bodkin/' said 










A CREWEL FROLIC 133 

Margaret to her One-Eyed Fairy friend and 
counselor. 

“A-hem! Let me think! ” replied Sir Bodkin 
wisely as he stood on her hand. He was 
always so proud when she asked his advice. 
He shone all over with pleasure. 

“ Let me see now; your dress is blue serge, 
isn’t it? How would you fancy a scarlet 
trimming of some kind of stitchery? Crewel 
can step off a pretty chain of silk stitches for 
you,” the King said. 



“ Oh! that would be lovely, I think! ” cried 
Margaret delightedly. 




134 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

“ Very well, if you have some scarlet floss, 
we can begin at once/’ Sir Bodkin answered, 
hopping down into the work-basket to call 
the Crewel One. That fancy fellow was 
listening to the conversation and was ready 
to come out. 

Margaret laid the new dress on 
a chair and ran off to tell her 
mother what was needed to trim 
it. Presently she returned with 
some glistening red silk floss ready 
to work. When the Crewel One 
was harnessed with a proper length 
of it in his eye he took three run¬ 
ning steps and a back step on the 
wrong side to hold it fast. Then 
he stepped through the cloth to 
the right side of the dress, one inch from the 
edge of the neck. He was ready to work 
and began to sing: 



Chain- 

Stitch 






A CREWEL FROLIC 135 

“With the floss, make a loop, 

Hold it with your thumb. 

Back I jump, step in again, 

Out through the loop I come. 

Pulling after me the floss, 

To make a loop again, 

Looping, stepping, right along 
We make a pretty chain. ,, 

Around the neck one inch from the edge 
frolicked the Crewel One with the floss in his 
eye and the pink fingers of Margaret’s right 
hand holding him. In her left hand she held 
the dress. Looping and stepping along their 
way a pretty trimming was soon formed. 
When the chain was finished, the floss was 
fastened securely on the wrong side of the 
dress. 

“ That looks good. Now do the armholes 
the same way. Be sure you link the two 
ends of the chain together on the underneath 
side of each armhole before you fasten the 
floss,” said the King. 


136 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


“ Yes, Sire,” answered the Crewel One 
respectfully. 

He and Margaret worked busily for a while. 

“ Now they are both done and my dress is 
trimmed. I must say it looks wonderful! ” 
said Margaret at last. 

Crewel skipped away to the 
table-top and began to jump 
rope with the strand of floss that 
was left over. 

“ I didn’t know you liked to 
jump rope as we girls do,” said 
Margaret to him, laughing. 

“ I must keep myself in trim, 
you know,” he said very seriously. 

Margaret giggled at this and took up her 
dress to go out of the room. 

“ I thank you both very much,” she said 
hurrying away to show her mother how pretty 
the new dress looked finished. 



A CREWEL FROLIC 


137 


“ Sir Bodkin and the Crewel One are very 
fine friends for my little daughter to have. 
How charming your dress 
looks now it is trimmed 
with that scarlet chain- 
stitching! ” said her mother. 

“ We had a ‘ Crewel 
Frolic/ ” laughed Margaret 
catching the punning habit 
from her One-Eyed friends. 

“ And I certainly think they 
say comical things, don’t 
you? ” 

“ Yes/’ answered her mother, “ they are 
very wonderful, indeed.” 






CHAPTER XVI 

MARGARET MAKES BUTTONHOLES 



“/"AH, Mother dear, we’re going on the 
most wonderful hike to-morrow! 
Are my new bloomers ready to wear? ” cried 
Margaret one afternoon as she ran into the 
house after school. 

“ They are finished except the buttonholes, 
which I am about to cut and make now,” her 
mother replied. 

Then the telephone bell rang and Mrs. Allen 
was obliged to talk about something so im¬ 
portant that Margaret knew it might take up 
a good deal of time before dinner. 

“ I believe I’ll run up-stairs and ask Sir 
Bodkin to show me how to make these button¬ 
holes,” she said to herself. Suiting the action 

138 


MARGARET MAKES BUTTONHOLES 139 


to the word she picked up the new bloomers 
and ran up-stairs with them to her own room. 

“ Sir Bodkin,” she called. 

“ Here I come,” he answered hopping out of 
the work-basket. 

“ Do you know how to 
make buttonholes? ” she 
asked him. 

“ Well I should say so,” he 
said. 

“ That’s fine, for I want to 
make two in the band of my new bloomers,” 
said Margaret. 

“ Have you any buttonhole scissors? ” he 
then asked her. 

“ I think Mother has. I’ll run and get 
them,” Margaret replied, hurrying out of the 
room. In a jiffy she was back again with a pair 
of odd-looking scissors in her hand. They had 
a notch in the blades and a screw on the handle. 





140 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

“ There we are,” he cried; “ now show me 
the buttons to go through the holes.” 

Margaret showed him two black bone 
buttons. 

“ The top of the button will show how large 



to cut the buttonhole,” Sir Bodkin said. 
“ Turn the screw until the blades cut a slit a 
tiny bit longer than the button top is wide. 
Test or try the size on a scrap of cloth before 
cutting the holes in your band.” 

When Margaret had done this and the 












MARGARET MAKES BUTTONHOLES 141 

scissors were set just right, she slipped them 
over the edge at one end of the band where 
the buttonhole was to be and waited. 

“ Begin to cut one-quarter inch from the 
edge of the band. Follow a thread of the 
goods to cut the hole straight,” said Sir 
Bodkin. “ Cut one hole at a time, then work 
it.” 

Margaret cut the first hole. Sir Bodkin 
called a stout Stitcher and he was harnessed 
with black cotton thread, a small knot at one 
end. 

“ Now to your work ! ” the King said, 
“ and don’t forget you begin at the end 
farthest away from the edge,—turning your 
work as you sew.” 

He told Margaret to hold the buttonhole 
along her left forefinger with the starting end 
next the finger-tip and the top of the band 
towards her. Stitcher slipped between the 


142 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

two layers of cloth at the starting end and 
came out towards Margaret, a little distance 

away from the edge of 
the slit. Then Stitcher 
jumped along the side of 
the buttonhole to the 
other end, across the end 
under the goods, out and 
Bar half wy around k ac k along the other side. 

4 4 The bar we place along each side, 

To keep the slit from stretching wide, ’ , 



explained the King as 
Stitcher stepped through 
the cloth again at the 
place where he started. 


1 . 

4 




Then he sang : 


,X 

3 


4 4 Now over and over the edge we skip, 

So it won’t ravel and so it won’t rip. 

Along each side, ’round each end go, 

Catching down the long bar threads as we sew.” 

“ That’s the overcasting/’ said Sir Bodkin, 
















MARGARET MAKES BUTTONHOLES 143 


when they were through. “ The buttonhole 
stitch will need heavier thread.” 

Stitcher was harnessed with some, and 
then stepped on the wrong side of the but¬ 
tonhole at the start¬ 


ing end to fasten the 
thread with tiny back 
steps. 

“ This buttonhole 

stitch will cover the 
bar and overcast- Overcasting half around 

ing,” he said. “ Now turn your work around, 
so that the starting end will be at your right 
hand, and do as I tell you.” Then he sang : 



“At starting end, I come half-way through, 

From my eye you bring threads down the right 
’neath my toe, 

Left thumb holds them down, I slip through and 
over, 

Pull threads out and up, the edge firmly cover. 
Stitching left, ’long the side and around the end go, 
Then ’long the next side to starting end, sew. 








144 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


At this end take two bar steps across and long, 
With blanket-stitch cover, to make this end strong. 


>> 






“ My! that was a teeny bit hard to do,” 
said Margaret to Stitcher and Sir Bodkin when 

the first buttonhole was 
finished. She took a little 
Test before starting the 
other one. 

“ They aren’t easy the 

first time. You have to 

mind your P’s and Q’s. 

Buttonhole-stitch < p rac tice makes per¬ 
fect,’ ” said the King to her. 

Margaret cut the sec¬ 
ond buttonhole on the 
other end of the band, 
put on the bar and then 
overcast’it. 

“ Keep buttonhole 
stitches even and close 


i Jill 

mu 

Ife 

llllllllll 

Hill 

w 


TTPTnvv^ 

Finished buttonhole 











































MARGARET MAKES BUTTONHOLES 145 

together to make a firm edge,” the King re¬ 
minded. 

When the second one was done, Sir Bodkin 
showed Margaret how to lap the buttonholes 
over the other end of 
the band and mark the 
place for the buttons 
with a pin. Then she 
sewed each button on 
with strong black cot¬ 
ton thread. 

Just as she finished 
she heard her mother calling to her that din¬ 
ner was ready. 

“ I wonder what she'd say when she 
sees these,” Margaret said to her little 
friends. 

“ She'll think you're a very smart little 
girl, I'll wager,” replied Sir Bodkin, bowing 
and scraping. 









146 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

“ Thank you both,” said Margaret, and ran 
out of the room carrying the bloomers over 
her arm. 


CHAPTER XVII 

TUCKING GRANDMA’S APRON 

NE day Margaret and her little friends, 
the One-Eyes, were talking together 
about grandparents. 

“ You never had any grandmother or 
grandfather, did you? ” Margaret asked Sir 
Bodkin. 

“ Of course we had them just 
like everybody else but we never 
saw them. They were very funny; 
you’ll laugh when I tell you their 
names/’ said Sir Bodkin. 

“ Oh! please tell me! ” urged 
Margaret. 

“ Well, thorns and briers were 
their names ! ” he said. 

“ Why, how funny, for they grow outdoors 

147 





148 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

on trees and bushes! ” cried Margaret trying 
not to laugh for she thought this sounded 
very queer. 

“ Just so. Yes, our great-grandparents, 
as I’m telling you, used to grow outdoors. 
They were the first One-Eyed Fairies. The 
people who made them lived outdoors, too. 
Then our grandparents were made of ivory 
and bone and were cut from bones and tusks. 
They lasted many a long day, I can tell you. 
Even to-day when some place is uncovered 
where people used to live hundreds of years 



ago, you’ll find a grandparent lying fast 
asleep with one eye open wide.” 

“You are a funny man. I never know 
what you are about to tell me,” Margaret 
said to him. “ Now that reminds me that 







TUCKING GRANDMA’S APRON 


149 


Mother has cut out and hemmed on the 
machine, the dearest little white apron for 
me to give my Grandma Thanksgiving Day 
when we go there to dinner. Do you know 
how to put in tucks? ” 

“ Upon my word I do. Just show me 
where they’re to go and I’ll show you how to 
put them in,” proudly said Sir Bodkin. 

Margaret went to get the gift and soon 
returned with it. 

“ Look here! ” she said and held up a 
piece of white lawn, hemmed on the sides and 
across the bottom. It was twenty-seven 
inches wide and several inches longer. 

“ Mother allowed some material for the 
three tucks,” Margaret explained. “ She said 
each tuck was to be one-quarter inch wide and 
one-half inch apart. We can baste in the 
tucks, can’t we? Then Mother will stitch 
them in on her machine.” 


150 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


“ Oh, yes, My Lady, we can easily do that. 
First we shall have to measure the distance, 
then crease them in, then baste,” Sir Bodkin 
told her. 

Margaret took the tape measure out of her 
work-basket and the tucking began. 



“ Measure one inch up from the hem top 
and crease the first tuck with your nail then 
pleat it with your fingers across the bottom 
of the apron,” Sir Bodkin said. 

Margaret creased very carefully and every 







TUCKING GRANDMA’S APRON 151 

so often measured until she had marked the 
tuck across from one side of the little apron 
to the other. 

“ That looks very even. Now, Baster, you 
rogue, baste this tuck very carefully,” said 
the King. 

Baster was harnessed with basting-thread, 
with the end knotted and then he waited for 
his little mistress to begin. 

“ Step along the tuck 
one-quarter inch from the 
creased edge. Take me¬ 
dium-sized steps, sir,” or¬ 
dered Sir Bodkin, “ but 
before you start take a 
few slides back and forth through the emery 
to glide in and out easily. Lawn is a little 
stiff sometimes, My Lady,” he said to Mar¬ 
garet. 

After Baster was shined as bright in the 



152 


TEE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


emery as he could be shined, Margaret held 
the tuck in her left hand and with her right 
pushed and held Baster as he stepped along. 

“ Use your tape measure, as you go along, 
to be sure he keeps his steps in the right track 
always from the top,” reminded Sir Bodkin. 

“ That one is basted,” cried Margaret at 
the end of the first tuck. 



3 inch 
hem 


i“And very nicely done, too,” praised the 
King. 

“ How shall I measure the second one? ” 
asked Margaret. 











TUCKING GRANDMA'S APRON 153 

tl Measure one inch from the basting for 
the second crease,” answered Sir Bodkin. 

When the second tuck was creased and 
basted and the third one done the same way, 
Margaret measured the apron from top to 
bottom. 

“ Don’t they take up the goods fast? It’s 
about twenty-seven inches long now,” she 
laughed. 

“ That’s what tucks do. They always 
take up twice as much goods as they are 
wide. We use them for dresses to allow for 
shrinking. And to allow for children growing, 
too,” he laughed. 

' “ Yes, I know that,” said Margaret, “ for 
Mother is always putting tucks in my clothes 
then taking them out, I grow so fast.” 

“ Then we use them for trimming, as in 
this apron. There are wide tucks and narrow 
tucks and pin tucks. Pin tucks go in babies’ 


154 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

bonnets and dresses. Sometimes we hold a 
little cord in the crease and sew along it. 
These corded tucks are very pretty for sheer 


materials,” he said. 



-j 


/ 


J 






TucKs basted ready 
For $titcbir>6 


“ And what kinds are 
they? ” asked Marga¬ 
ret. 

“Oh, those fine 
enough to see through, 
like lawn and swiss and 
organdie,” answered 
Sir Bodkin. 

“ This begins to look 
pretty. When Mother 
stitches these tucks on 
the machine and the 


bastings are pulled out, then I’m going to gather 
the top and sew it on a band,” said Margaret. 

“ That’s fun! ” cried Sir Bodkin. “ I just 
love to put on bands,” 














TUCKING GRANDMA’S APRON 


155 


“ Well do that another day. I must run 
out now and do my errands for Mother,” 
Margaret said folding her work and jumping 
up from her little chair. 

“ Good-bye, everybody, and be good,” she 
laughed running out of the room with the 
folded apron in her hand. 

“Step, step, step away, 

Always jolly and always gay. 

While my steps may not last, yon see, 

How would things look if it wasn ’t for me! ” 

sang Baster, dancing and whirling around the 
table-top. 

“ He hates himself,” cried some of the other 
One-Eyed Fairies from the pincushion. Then 
Baster went on singing: 

“Laugh, smile, dance away, 

Enjoy yourself, is what I say. 

Do your work, then dance for joy, 

Is the motto I give to each girl and boy! * ’ 

Sir Bodkin stood watching and laughing at 


156 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


the antics of his happy-go-lucky subject as 
he frolicked around the table-top teasing this 
one, pulling that one’s thread out of his eye. 

“ Now, that’s enough, sir, for to-day,” said 
Sir Bodkin laughing and holding his sides. 
“ Enough’s enough! ” 



CHAPTER XVIII 

FINISHING THE GIFT 


N EXT day after school Margaret ran 
up to her room carrying the little 
lawn apron to be finished. 

“ Sir Bodkin, I’m here. Just see how nice 
these tucks are sewed in by machine. And 
look! Mother put a cunning pocket on the 
right hand side for Grandma to tuck her 
handkerchief in,” she said. 



Sir Bodkin stood up quickly from the 
table-top where he had been resting since 
yesterday. 


157 



158 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

“ Yes, My Lady, it looks very neat indeed. 
Of course I’m old fashioned and prefer hand¬ 
sewing to machine-sewing but I know there 

* 

is so much to do these days that time can be 
saved by using the machine/’ he answered. 

“ Oh, I’m glad you think these tucks look 
well, ’cause I stitched ’em myself. Mother 
let me try,” Margaret said proudly. 

“ I must say you kept it straight,” Sir 
Bodkin remarked. “ Now, how about the 
band for that apron to-day? ” 

Margaret showed him a piece of lawn 
about twenty inches long and two inches 
wide. Sir Bodkin told her to fold it over 
lengthwise making it one inch wide. Then 
he said to crease the fold for the top of the 
band. Next he told her to find the center of 
the band from the ends and mark it on the 
two raw edges with tiny notches. 

“ We are to allow one inch on each end 


FINISHING THE GIFT 


159 


beyond the gathers for the long strings to be 
sewed on,” said Margaret. 

“ Then that will leave us eighteen inches 
to sew the gathers on. Oh, you Stitcher! ” 
called Sir Bodkin to one in the pincushion. 
He came over and was harnessed for gathering 
with a double thread, longer than the gather¬ 
ing-space was to be. 



King. 

“ No, indeedy,” replied Margaret. 




















160 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


“ Find the center of the apron top and cut 
a tiny notch/' said Sir Bodkin. 

After this was done, Margaret held the 
right side of the apron next to her and began 
to gather the top one-quarter inch from the 
edge, going from right to left. 

“ Run a few stitches on Stitcher and then 
pinch them flat to set them/' directed the 
King. 

When the gathers were run in Margaret 
pinned the center of the apron top to the cen¬ 
ter of one long edge of the band. Nine inches 
each way from the center she pinned the ends 
of the gathers to the band and drew up the 
thread to fit. After which she wound the 
thread in a figure-eight around a pin. 

“ You're a Jim Dandy," said Sir Bodkin 
watching his little mistress. “ Now take 
Stitcher in your hand and stroke the gathers 
with his toe and lay them evenly along the 


FINISHING THE GIFT 


161 


band so they won’t be too bunchy here and 
too skimpy there. But be careful you don’t 
scratch the goods,” he said to his subject. 

Then Baster was harnessed and basted the 
gathers to the band above the gathering- 
thread. Margaret held the gathers next to 
herself. 



Basting fathers bo band 


“ One-quarter inch from the edge sew the 
gathers to the band. Runner, take back and 
running steps, catching up one gather at a 
time,” Sir Bodkin said to Margaret and the 
Fairy. When this was done and thread fast¬ 
ened, they fastened the gathering-thread, too. 
Then they snipped all threads off and waited. 












































162 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

“ Turn over the other edge of the band 
one-quarter inch towards you, crease it and 
bring it down on the gathers. Now, Baster, 
your turn to step again to hold this fold down 
firm,” said Sir Bodkin. 



“ Then Mother will stitch it on the ma¬ 
chine,” finished Margaret, “ and I’ll make 
the strings and sew them on and the darling 
little apron will be ready to go to Grandma’s.” 

“ How will you make the strings, My 
Lady? ” asked Sir Bodkin. 

“ Oh, I’ll turn over tiny hems on the sides 
and a larger one on the ends and they’ll 































FINISHING THE GIFT 


163 


be stitched on the machine. Then I can easily 
sew the strings to the ends of the band. And 
ril put a tiny pink bow on the pockety cried 
Margaret eagerly. 

“ Very fetching, and a 
lovely gift for a grand¬ 
mother. She’ll like it, 
I’m sure,” said the King. 

“ Maybe she’ll want 
me to sew some of her 
tatting around the edge 
’cause she makes yards 
and yards of it in her 
spare time,” said Mar¬ 
garet. 

“ That would be pretty, too,” agreed the 
tiny King. “ It is a matter of choice for: 

“Some like them trimmed, 

Some like them plain, 

Whichever they are, 

They are useful just the same.” 















164 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

“ Oh, you funny man, that doesn't rhyme 
very well," laughed Margaret. 

“ You get my meaning," said Sir Bodkin 
laughing himself. 

“ Look at the One-Eyes! " cried Margaret 
and they both turned to see the shining little 
needle Fairies playing football with the 



been hearing so much about the game all the 
fall they thought they would try it themselves. 
Baster was referee. They would kick it high 
in the air and then catch it on their heads and 
run away with it all around the pincushion in 
fine style. 



FINISHING THE GIFT 


165 


“ Thank you, dear King, and take good care 
of yourself and your Fairies,” said Margaret 
before she left the room. 

Sir Bodkin took a walk around the table-top 
then ordered his subjects into the pincushion 
for the night. 


CHAPTER XIX 

RICKRACK TRIMMING 


S IR BODKIN looked quite sad as he 
stood on Margaret’s table. 

“ It’s been a long time since she called me 
to help her,” he said to himself. 



Just then Margaret came into 
the room. She was carrying 
something over her arm made of 
blue chambray material. 





“ Sir Bodkin! ” she called. “ Oh, 
there you are, you dear little 


man!” she cried spying him standing on the 
table. 

“ You’ve not forgotten us, My Lady? ” he 
said brightening. 

“ Of course not, you queer little man, I need 

your help this minute.” 

166 







RICKRACK TRIMMING 


167 


“ Oh, that’s good news/’ said Sir Bodkin 
looking quite himself again. 

“ Mother has cut out the duckiest apron 
and cap for me to wear when I cook and do 
housework. The hems on the edges must be 
sewed and then trimmed some way. Thought 
you could tell me how,” explained Margaret. 


Sir Bodkin w r as so happy he called his One- 
Eyed Fairies from the work-basket to sing 
and dance on the table. 



Both great and small 

And dance on Margaret’s table. 

All merry be, 

And glad and free, 

And sing if you are able/’ 

cried their King. 


168 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

“ The dear little things/’ thought Margaret 
to herself. 

“ Now/’ said Sir Bodkin when the dance 
and frolic was ended, “ let’s get to work.” 

, “ I’ve turned all the hems around the apron 
edge, the neck, pocket-tops, and cap edge,” 
said Margaret 

“ Fine! We can baste them. That will 
give Baster something to do,” Sir Bodkin 
said calling his jolly subject from the needle- 
book. 

Margaret harnessed him and he stepped 
along all the tiny hems with quick small 
steps. 

“ What kind of trimming do you fancy on 
your apron and cap? ” asked the King. 

“ That’s just what I want you to help me 
decide,” said Margaret. 

“ You could put some kind of stitches for 
edging, but I think rickrack braid would be 


RICKRACK TRIMMING 


169 


pretty. It would also hold down the hems 
with one sewing,” he told Margaret. 

“ Then let’s use that. I think it would be 
lovely. I’ll ask Mother if she has any,” she 
cried and ran off to see. 

When she came 
back she had a little 
package in her hand 
done up in shiny pa¬ 
per. 

“Now we’re ready,” 
said Sir Bodkin. 

“ Begin at one side of the apron, hold the 
wrong side next to you. Place the braid on 
the hem so the points will peep out on 
the right side and make an even edge. Put 
the braid all around the outside edge of the 
apron, then you can do all the other edges 
and the edge of your cap. Be careful to join 
all ends neatly where they meet.” 







170 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

“ Oh, don’t the points look pretty peeping 
out on the right side! ” cried Margaret as she 
and Baster stepped the braid on. It took 
time and pains to baste it all on neatly and 
join the ends carefully. 



“ Deary me, how slowly we sew ’cause the 
thread snarls so ! ” exclaimed Margaret. 

“ You must have a lazy man’s thread,” 
replied Sir Bodkin laughing. 

“ What kind is that ? ” asked Margaret 
looking up in surprise. 

“ One that’s too long. Longer than arm’s 
length. You might think it easier to use one, 
and that you could sew faster. But you 










RICKRACK TRIMMING 171 

can’t. It takes longer to pull it through 
every time and it’s sure to get snarled and 
knotted. A short thread is better/’ said Sir 
Bodkin. “ Did you ever hear the story of 
the tailor’s daughter ? ” 

“ No,” said Margaret, “ tell it to me.” 

“Well,” began the 
King, seating himself on 
a spool of thread as they 
worked, “ it was this 
way: Once upon a time 
there was an old tailor 
who had a very beau¬ 
tiful daughter. He also 
had in his shop two young tailors working 
for him. Now both these young tailors 
loved the daughter and wanted to marry 
her. So each one asked the father for her 
hand. They were both good and the old 
tailor couldn’t choose between them. So he 









172 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

said : 1 The one who can make a suit of 
clothes first shall have her/ 

“ Each at once set to work on a suit of 
clothes and the beautiful daughter threaded 
their needles for them. Now one of the two 
young tailors was the daughter’s favorite. 
Of course she wanted him to get through 



first. So she threaded the other one’s needles 
with great long threads which made him sew 
very slowly. But she threaded with short 
threads the needles of the one she loved, and 
he sewed so fast that he got through first. 
So he won the beautiful daughter’s hand in 
marriage and they lived happily ever after¬ 
ward.” 




RICKRACK TRIMMING 


173 


“ Oh, Pm so glad!” cried Margaret who 
dearly loved a story. “That is a lovely 
story, Sir Bodkin.” 

“I like it quite well myself,” he replied 
getting up and looking at the work cap which 
Margaret was about to trim with the rick- 
rack braid. 

“ How does your cap go on your head, My 
Lady? ” he asked. 

“ It has an elastic in the casing and is just 
a plain round cap,” answered Margaret. 

“ The frill falling around your face will 
look very sweet with these little white points 
on it,” Sir Bodkin said looking admiringly 
at his little mistress. “ In fact you'll look 
like a princess and you are one, anyway, 
for: 

“No queen or princess holds more sway, 

Or has more subjects loving, 

Than she who makes the home more gay 
And daily tasks is doing. 


174 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


Now any child with loving heart 
And willing hands, though royal, 
May find a kingdom right at home 
With subjects fond and loyal.” 



you say,” said the King. 


11 Do you really 
think that! ” cried 
Margaret delight¬ 
edly, with a tiny 
lump in her throat. 

“ Yes, My Lady,” 
he answered. 

“ Well, this braid 
is all basted on 
now,” she soon told 
him. 

“ Runner can step 
it down for you or 
it can be sewed on 
the machine, just as 


I think the machine would be stronger 









RICKRACK TRIMMING 175 

for the wash-tub, don't you? " she asked 
him. 

“ Perhaps it would," said Sir Bodkin. 

“ There is another set to do to-morrow and 
it is just like this one only pink. Then I'll 
have two," Margaret said happily. 

“ My Lady will be a regular little house¬ 
wife, soon," smiled the King. 

“ Yes, I want to be one," Margaret said 
putting Baster in the pincushion, “ and when 
I help Mother after school I'll slip on my 
apron to keep my dress neat, for: 

“ Spots are ugly things to see 
On clothes that should so dainty be. 

When I help Mother every day, 

Ill need to wear my apron gay.” 


CHAPTER XX 

THE DOLL’S CHRISTMAS PRESENT 


M ARGARET had been very busy all 
the fall. Now that Thanksgiving 
was over the little girl turned her thoughts 
towards Christmas and Christmas presents. 

She was making a present for 
her doll. It was a little cover 
for the doll’s bed and one for 
the pillow. They were made 
of cream-colored muslin and 
had designs stamped on them 
in black lines, which were to 
be embroidered in a colored 
embroidery cotton. 

“1 know she’ll like a bed-cover, ’cause her 

bed hasn’t any to make it look pretty after 

it’s made up in the morning,” said Margaret 

176 





THE DOLL’S CHRISTMAS PRESENT 177 

to herself. “ She’s a very good child and 

should have a nice gift.” 

“Sir Bodkin, Sir Bodkin, 

I need your help to-day, 

To work out this picture 
In colors so gay!” 

sang Margaret to the tiny King in her work- 
basket. 

“ I’m singing everything now, just like the 
One-Eyes,” she laughed to herself. 

Sir Bodkin hopped out of 
the basket. 

“ Good for you, and very 
well done,” said he climbing 
upon the arm of Margaret’s 
chair. “ Let me see the pic¬ 
tures to be embroidered.” 

She spread the tiny covers 
on her lap for him to look over. 
“ They will be very pretty 
worked in outline stitch in one color, he 










178 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


told Margaret as he turned himself this way 
and that to get a good view from all sides. 

“ I would like to do the design in pink, 
’cause my bed is pink and my doll’s bed always 
stands over in that corner near mine/’ replied 
Margaret. 

“ Very good. You’ll need a fast worker. 
I’ll call out Race-Horse Embroiderer. Har¬ 
ness him with pink embroidery cotton and 
he’ll step quickly along and cover up those 
black lines in no time,” said the King. 



Race-Horse Embroiderer came sliding very 
quickly from the needle-book. He stood very 
still while Margaret threaded some coarse 
embroidery cotton in his eye. 

“ That coarse cotton will work up fast and 



THE BOLL’S CHRISTMAS PRESENT 179 

make the picture stand out better,” Sir 
Bodkin told his mistress. 

“ Yes, you're right. I just love pink for a 
color and so does my doll,” answered Mar¬ 
garet. 

“ I’m partial to it myself,” replied the King. 
“ We’ll make this a very pretty present. 
When the outlines are worked in pink you 
can blanket-stitch the edge of each cover in 
this pink cotton and the whole thing when 
finished will look charming.” 

Margaret seemed pleased and took the 
little cover in her left hand and Embroiderer 
in her right. He stepped on the stamped 
design where one of the lines began and sang: 

“To fasten the thread, I take a run 
Towards you on the line. 

Now I am ready to take the steps 
That make the picture fine. 

Always pointing to yourself 
With my little toe, 


180 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


On the line I take a step, 

Then away with a jump I go. 

Another step, another jump, 

A straight trail left behind. 

The black line now is covered up, 

The picture’s pink you 11 find. ’ ’ 

“ Be sure, sir, you always swing your thread 
down on the same side,” cautioned Sir Bodkin. 

“ Yes,” said Marga¬ 
ret, “ we’re doing that 
all right.” She was so 
fascinated with covering 
up the lines and making 
them pink with the 
stitches that before she 
knew it the bed-cover 
was done. 

Outline-stitch “ Doesn’t that look 

lovely! ” she cried holding it up. 

“ It does look very dainty and dollified,” 
said Sir Bodkin peering down from the chair 



THE DOLL’S CHRISTMAS PRESENT 181 































182 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

arm. “ Can you finish the pillow-cover 
to-day, too? ” 

“ I'll have to do that to-morrow, for it’s 
now time for my errands. Then when the 
pillow-cover is outlined we can do the blanket- 
stitching ’round the edge. It’s all very 
pretty and easy to do. I know my doll will 
be glad when she sees this present on Christ¬ 
mas morning,” Margaret 
said as she folded up her 
work to be placed in her 
bureau drawer until next 
day. 

“ I’m afraid if I leave it 
out on the work-basket 
she’ll see it,” she ex¬ 
plained to Sir Bodkin and 
the One-Eyed Fairies, 
“ and I want it to be a surprise.” 

“ To your place, sir,” whispered Sir Bodkin 




THE DOLL’S CHRISTMAS PRESENT 183 

to Embroiderer, “ and don’t any of you 
breathe a word of this to the doll.” 

“ Thank you all very much,” said Margaret. 
“ I wish I could do something for your 
Christmas.” 

“ Christmas is not for us unless we are 
given away to some one in work-baskets or 
help people get ready for it. That is pleasure 
enough for us, My Lady,” Sir Bodkin an¬ 
swered. 

“ You are nice all-the-year-round friends, 
anyway, and I couldn’t get along without 
you,” she said. So the sewing was put away 
for the day and was taken up next day and 
the day after that until it was finished entirely. 


CHAPTER XXI 


SOME MORE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS 

ARGARET came into her room a few 



days after the doll’s Christmas pres¬ 
ent was finished. 

“ More presents to be made? ” asked Sir 
Bodkin jumping off the pincushion. 



“ Yes,” answered Margaret, “ and these 
will be the last.” 

“ What are they to be? ” asked the King 
again. 

“ Mother bought me a third of a yard of 
handkerchief linen to make some handker- 


184 



SOME MORE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS 185 

chiefs. Can you tell me how? " she asked her 
friend, holding up some fine white cloth. 

| “I suppose the linen is thirty-six inches, or 
a yard, wide? " he said. 

Margaret took her tape measure from the 
work-basket and measured the goods. 

“ That's the width," Margaret told Sir 
Bodkin. 

“ Then you can cut it into three twelve- 
inch squares. First cut off the selvedge on 
each end. That's the woven edge on the 
sides of the cloth; and fold the linen in three 
across the long way of the piece," directed 
Sir Bodkin. 

“ Take a One-Eyed Fairy in your hand and 
with his toe pick up a thread running the 
same way you wish to cut the squares apart. 
Pull the thread out and cut where it leaves a 
little track. This is called cutting by a 
thread," said he to Margaret. 


186 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

“ Fold each square over diagonally to see 
if it is the same on all four sides. If it is, 
then it’s a perfect square and we can go on 
with the edges,” Sir Bodkin told his mistress. 



“lEach one is perfectly square now,” said 
Margaret; “ how shall we sew the first one? ” 
“ The first one we’ll hemstitch,” said the 
King. “ Measure one-half inch in from the 
edge and pick up and pull out a thread very 
carefully across the square. Use the Fairy’s 
toe as before. Do another thread towards 
















SOME MORE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS 187 


the center. Do five threads on each side,” 
said Sir Bodkin. 

Margaret soon had the sides drawn and 
ready. Then she turned a tiny hem and 


.liiiimiiiiimnirniflT 

_ av 7ft _ IRC 

.I imiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 

1 m 


First Stitch 



Second \Stitcb 


Hemstitching 


basted it down to the place where the threads 
were drawn. Fine Stitcher was harnessed 
with number 80 white cotton thread. 

She held the hem at the top over her left 
forefinger. Stitcher came up through it and 


































































































188 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

out at the right-hand corner ready to start. 
He left a trail of thread under the hem to 
fasten it. Then he sang: 

“I start at right corner where threads are 
drawn 

And with my little toe, 

Pick up a tiny bunch of them, 

Slip underneath towards you. 

Back over I go and step towards you 
Beneath the bunch again, 

But this time stick my little toe 
Up through the edge of hem.” 

“ There! ” cried Sir Bodkin, “ you’ve made 
your first hemstitch. Keep the bunches of 
threads the same size as you go from right to 
left and they’ll look even when finished.” 

Margaret and Stitcher went very carefully 
along one side to the other corner. 

“ You have to be careful when you pick 
up the threads in the tiny spaces at the cor¬ 
ners where the cloth is double. Whip the 
outside edges of the hems together at the cor- 


SOME MORE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS 189 


ners so they won’t fray out when washed/’ 
said Sir Bodkin and waited for this to be 
done and the thread fastened. 

“ Oh,” said Margaret, “ that takes care to 
make it look nice. And you have to keep 
your hands very clean or your work gets 
dirty.” 

“ Well, My Lady, we can’t have any gains 
without pains, you know. Take your time 
tfa and be sure to get the bunches 
* J of threads even and all sewing 
threads fastened well. Then 
this fine white linen handker¬ 
chief hemstitched by hand will 
be a present fit for a queen,” 
Sir Bodkin replied. 

“ And that will be my Mother! ” said Mar¬ 
garet proudly. 

Sir Bodkin nodded approval of this. “ Sup¬ 
pose you lay this one aw^ay for to-day and 





190 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

start the next one. Then you won't get so 
tired. You have plenty of time to finish the 
three before Christmas/' said he. 

“ I'll run and wash my hands again to be 
sure they're clean," said Margaret. 

“ Wait a minute. Wet a clean little sponge 
or cloth to moisten your fingers when you roll 
the hem in this handkerchief," cried the King 
to her before she got out of sight. 

When she came back Mar¬ 
garet picked up the square of 
linen. Sir Bodkin told her to 
trim the corners off round with 
her scissors. 

t 

“ Roll the edge of the linen 
between your left thumb and 
forefinger towards you until 
the raw edge is out of sight. Moisten your 
fingers a tiny bit and don't get the hem too 
big and clumsy," cautioned Sir Bodkin. 








SOME MORE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS 191 

In a few minutes Margaret learned the 
knack of hem-rolling. 

“ It’s kind of fun, isn’t it? ” she said. 

“ Yes, and that one looks good for a first 
attempt,” said the King. 

Margaret looked pleased. Then she folded 
her work away in the basket. 



“ Good-bye, dear,” she said to her friend, 
“ I must run and do my errands now. You’ll 
see me to-morrow.” 

All was quiet in the room, after she had 
gone, with the mystery of Christmas presents 
loaded with pleasant thoughts, waiting to be 
finished by their happy maker. 

















CHAPTER XXII 

FINISHING THE HANDKERCHIEFS 


N EXT day Margaret hurried to her 
room wearing a pretty little white 
apron over her school dress. 

“ To keep my work clean,” said she to Sir 
Bodkin. 

“ Good plan. Now let’s get to work, for 
there is plenty to do,” he answered her. 

Margaret took up the handkerchief with 
the rolled hem. 

“ We’ll have to overcast around the entire 
edge once so you can turn and go back the 
other way to finish,” said Sir Bodkin when 
the hem was rolled. 

He called Embroiderer to him and asked 
Margaret if she had any fine French em¬ 
broidery cotton. 


192 


FINISHING THE HANDKERCHIEFS 193 

“ Yes, Mother bought some for me to use,” 
she said holding up several skeins in colors 
pink, blue, and red. 

“ Fine! ” cried Sir 
Bodkin; “ which color 
shall you use to work 
this edge? You may 
use one or two.” 

“ I think blue and 
red would be pretty,” 
said Margaret. 

“ Very good. We’ll 
overcast red one way 
and blue the other. All ready? ” he said to 
Embroiderer, when he was harnessed. 

“ Yes, Your Majesty,” replied the Fairy. 

“ Then go! ” cried the King. Margaret 
held the square with the hem at the top, in 
her left hand rolled side away from her. 

Fastening the thread under the rolled hem 









194 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


so it couldn’t come out and didn’t show, the 
Fairy began to step over and over from right 

to left, singing: 

i ‘Over and over from right to left 
Along the hem I go. 

Step over the edge and back ’neath the hem, 

So fine and even, you know. 

You keep the hem measured straight by a 
thread, 

As you hold it for me to step over. 

Slowly we go round the corner, my dear, 

The rolled edge so neatly to cover .’* 



\\ \\\\w 


First overcasting 


“ 0 dear,” said Margaret, “sthe thread gets 
so twisted as he goes over and over.” 

“ Let him hang for a minute from the end 
and he’ll swing it around straight again,” 
laughed Sir Bodkin. 




FINISHING THE HANDKERCHIEFS 195 


This was done and the overcasting went on. 
After a while they were around the four sides 

of the handkerchief. 

“ What shall we do now! ” 
cried Margaret. 

“ Fasten the red thread, take 
a blue one, then turn around 
and go the other way from left 
to right and you'll see how pretty 
it looks," said the King. The 
Fairy sang: 


m 




“Over and over from left to right, 
To cross our first steps we go. 
Jump over the edge, stick my toe 
’neath the hem 

Where I came through the first 
time you know.’’ 


“ Oh, doesn't it look pretty! " 
cried Margaret as the tiny crosses began to 
appear on the edge. 

“ Now leave that and start the third one," 









196 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

said Sir Bodkin and Margaret took up the 
third square. 



“ Turn a tiny hem all around, one-eighth 
inch both turns, and baste it,” said the King. 

When this was done, Sir Bodkin told Mar¬ 
garet of two ways to finish this hem. 

j “ You can hem it 
with tiny invisible 
stitches or you can 
blanket-stitch it in 
pink,” he said. “ Noth¬ 
ing is more dainty or 
charming than a plain 
white linen handkerchief finely hemmed by 
















FINISHING THE HANDKERCHIEFS 197 

hand, but for a Christmas present, the pink 
blanket-stitching would be more festive,” he 
advised. 

“ And I know how to do that, too. I think 
these handkerchiefs will all look sweet when 
they are finished,” said Margaret. 

“ Wash them in the bowl with lukewarm 
water and white soap, rinse them, blue them, 
and then press them when damp and you’ll 
have three first-class presents. Remember to 
take your time, make your stitches even, keep 
your work clean as you do it, and you’ll come 
out all right/’ Sir Bodkin said. 

Margaret was very busy after school for 
several days after this working to finish care¬ 
fully and daintily the edges of the three 
handkerchiefs. At last all three were done. 

“ Thank you very much, Sir Bodkin, for 
showing me how to make such lovely gifts. I 
know those who get them will like them 


198 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

very much. Thank you all, and a very 
Merry Christmas to every one,” she said 
smiling as she put each one away carefully in 
the needle-book. 

“ Don’t eat too much turkey or candy and 



don’t forget your little friends,” laughed Sir 
Bodkin as he bowed to Margaret from the 
table. 

“ No, I’ll try to be wise and I’ll never 
forget you! ” said she and then she ran away 


























FINISHING THE HANDKERCHIEFS 199 

and was soon busy wrapping up her Christ¬ 
mas gifts. 

Outside the Christmas snow was falling, 
inside the little One-Eyed Fairies all pre¬ 
pared to take a long rest until after the holi¬ 
days. 


CHAPTER XXIII 

LAZY-DAISIES AND FRENCH KNOTS 

HRISTMAS was over and Margaret’s 



little pink fingers were busy again 
with a One-Eyed Fairy, sewing on a pretty 
square tea-cloth for Mother. 

Sir Bodkin saw his little mistress hard at 
work and quietly crept up on the table beside 
her to find out what she was sewing. He was 



very curious and jealous of what she did with¬ 
out asking him. You see, when a Bodkin and 
his subjects come to live in any one’s work- 

basket they belong heart and soul to that 

200 



LAZY-DAIS1ES AND FRENCH KNOTS 201 

person. Especially so if they have been 
bought from a store and given for a present. 
People sometimes become so fond of their 
One-Eyed Fairies, they use them for years and 
they become great pets. They miss certain 
ones very much when they become lost or 
broken. 

“ It’s because we’re made of such finely 
tempered steel,” Sir Bodkin once explained to 
Margaret. 

“ Now those are done! ” at last exclaimed 
Margaret to herself holding up the tea-cloth 
stamped with a design of flowers. She had 
just finished outlining the leaves and stems 
in green embroidery cotton. 

“ What is it, My Lady? ” asked Sir Bodkin 
unable to control his curiosity any longer. 

“ Oh, how do you do? ” said Margaret to 
him. “ Sh-h-h, don’t say a word. I am doing 
this for Mother as a surprise. She’s giving a 


202 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

tea-party soon and I want to work these 
flowers on this tea-cloth. Do you know how 
to make them pretty? ” 



“ Yes, My Lady,” answered Sir Bodkin, 
“ they can be done easily and effectively with 
lazy-daisies for petals and French knots for 
centers.” 

“ Those are funny names,” laughed Mar¬ 
garet, “ but you know all about the stitches, 
so Til take your word for it. What colors 
do you think would be nice to work them in? ” 


















LAZY-DAISIES AND FRENCH KNOTS 203 

“ Everything is color nowadays. You 
could use pinks and blues with yellow centers,” 


replied the tiny King. 

“ That would look 
gay, and quite right for 
afternoon tea, I think,” 
said Margaret, getting 
out her embroidery- 
bag and selecting the 
colors from the French 
embroidery cotton in 
it. 

Embroiderer was har¬ 
nessed with pink for 
the first flower. 

“ Don’t forget to 
work the petals from 
the center all the time/’ 
Sir Bodkin said to him. 



“ I know, Sire,” he replied and stepped on 




204 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

the wrong side of the tea-cloth to fasten the 
thread underneath the flower center, then he 
sang: 

“From the center step out, and a loop I make. 

At the center step in, and a quick step take 
Out over the loop end, and step in once more, 
Then out at the center, make loop as before/' 

“ It goes easier than it sounds,” said Mar¬ 
garet as she and the Fairy made lazy-daisy 
petals of pink, then blue, all along the tea- 
cloth. 

“ With the yellow centers, it will look very 
handsome,” replied Sir Bodkin. 

“Now for the Frenchies,” laughed Mar¬ 
garet when all the flower petals were done. 
“ I wonder what time it’s getting to be.” 

Just then the big grandfather clock down¬ 
stairs in the hall struck five. 

“ HI have time to start the centers before 
it's time to wash my hands and face and brush 


LAZY-DAISIES AND FRENCH KNOTS 205 

my hair for dinner. I wish I had the time 
with me then I wouldn’t always be running 
round looking at clocks,” sighed Margaret. 

She harnessed Embroiderer with yellow, 
and made a knot in one end of the thread as 
the King told her to do. 

“ All ready,” said Sir Bodkin. 



“ Yes, Your Majesty,” answered the Fairy 
and stepped up through the cloth from the 
wrong side to the right side in the flower 
center. Margaret pulled the cotton through, 
the knot holding it fast and the Fairy sang: 


206 


THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


“ While you hold me in your right hand, 

And to left I point my toe; 

Left hand wraps the cotton round me, 

Three times where the thread came through. 
Left hand holds the wrapped thread firmly, 

In again I stick my toe, 

Through the place where I came out first 
To the wrong side quickly then I go.” 

After the embroidery cotton had been 
pulled all the way through, it left a little 
round knot on the right side in the flower 
center. Sir Bodkin told Margaret to bring 
the fairy up through again to make another 
French knot in the flower center. 

“ Five knots are about right for one 
flower/'’ said he. So Margaret and the fairy 
Embroiderer made that number in each one. 

“ You have to hold the cotton tight with 
your left hand as you push him in, or it 
doesn’t make a pretty knot, does it? ” said 
Margaret after a while. 

“ Yes, you have to get the knack, as you do 


LAZY-DAISIES AND FRENCH KNOTS 207 

in almost any kind of stitchery,” remarked 
Sir Bodkin. 

“ Oh, I must stop now and get ready for 
dinner! ” cried Margaret jumping up and 
sticking Embroiderer into 
the pincushion so deep that 
nothing could be seen of 
him at all. Then she ran 
hurriedly out of the room 
after putting her work away 
in her bureau drawer. 

“ Goodness me, where am I? ” cried the 
Fairy in alarm. “ I’ve sunk out of sight, I 
know ! 99 But none of the others heard him, 
for his voice was smothered in the sawdust 
stuffing. 



/ 


CHAPTER XXIV 

A SURPRISE 

M ARGARET hunted and hunted 
everywhere for Embroiderer. 

“ Where can he be? ” she said. “ I would 
like to finish these French knots to-day.” 

“ Where did you last see him, My Lady? ” 
asked Sir Bodkin in distress. He, too, had 



been looking everywhere; in the needle-book 
and the work-basket and on the table-top, for 
the lost One-Eyed Fairy. This was the first 
time during the year they had lived with 








A SURPRISE 


209 


Margaret that anything had happened to 
any one of them. 

“ Oh, I remember now where I left him 
yesterday!” cried Margaret. “I was in a 
hurry and stuck him ’way down deep into the 
pincushion.” 

“ Then you’ll have to squeeze him out,” 
said Sir Bodkin. “ Take the pincushion and 
squeeze the top and bottom together care¬ 
fully, so if he’s there his toe won’t prick your 
fingers. Many a One-Eyed Fairy has been 
lost in a pincushion.” 

Margaret took 
up the red tomato 
pincushion and 
squeezed it and 
pinched it. 

“ Here he is!” 
she cried as Embroiderer’s head began to 
poke through the top of the red cloth. 



210 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

“ Deary me, but I’m glad to get out of that 
place again! ” said he taking a deep breath. 
“ You can’t breathe in there and the sawdust 
gets in your eye, too. I squirmed and 
wriggled and perhaps I’d have come out the 
bottom soon. My, but I’m glad you squeezed 
me out the top! ” 

“ Of course you might have got yourself 
out, but we should have been frightfully 
worried,” said Sir Bodkin much relieved to 
see him again safe and sound. 

“ Do you feel like helping me to do the 
rest of these French knots in the tea-cloth? ” 
asked Margaret, putting him through the 
emery to dust off the sawdust. 

“ Oh, yes! Some exercise would do me 
good,” he answered. 

Margaret and he worked busily and finished 
the tea-cloth. 

u Do you know that to-morrow will be my 


A SURPRISE 


211 


birthday? ” asked the little girl of the One- 
Eyed Fairies and their King. 

“ So it will,” replied Sir Bodkin. “ It 
doesn’t seem a year since we came to live 
with you, My Lady.” 

“ No, the time has gone very fast for me. 
It’s been lots of fun knowing you all and 
learning how to sew and make pretty things,” 
said Margaret looking at her tiny friends with 
shining eyes. 

“ We’ll always stick to you, My Lady,” 
they all cried. 

“ I’m glad, for I never could do without 
you. Oh, there goes that clock striking half¬ 
past five! It’s late. I must hurry to tidy 
myself before Father comes home to dinner. 
Good-bye, dears,” she said running out of the 
room. 

Next morning early Sir Bodkin and the 
One-Eyes were wakened out of their sleep 


212 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 


by a loud noise in their work-basket 
home. 

“ Tick-tick,” it sounded. 

“ Mercy sakes! ” cried Sir Bodkin hopping 
up very much frightened. “ I never heard 
such a queer noise in my life! ” 



Every one of the One-Eyed Fairies was 
frightened, too. There in the work-basket 
among the sewing things was a long blue box. 
The noise was coming from inside. 

“ Maybe it’s a bomb! ” cried Baster who 
had a vivid imagination. 








A SURPRISE 


213 


“ It’s something terrible, I know! ” said 
Hemmer timidly. 

“ I think we're all wrong! ” said Sir Bodkin 
suddenly. “ This is Margaret's birthday and 
I believe this is for her, 'cause it looks some¬ 
thing like a jewel-box to me and-" 



“ What's the matter? What are you all 
looking at so intently!" cried Margaret 
herself just then as she jumped out of bed and 
ran over to see. 

“ Oh, look! " she cried in delight, picking 








214 THE ONE-EYED FAIRIES 

up the blue leather box and pressing the 
spring-button, in the front. The lid flew up 
and the cause of all the disturbance lay there, 
before their eyes, ticking away on the white 
satin lining. 

“ A silver wrist-watch for my birthday! ” 
gasped Margaret with her eyes growing 
bigger and bigger with surprise and pleasure. 

Sir Bodkin and all the One-Eyed Fairies 
fell back in astonishment. 

“ Many, many happy returns of the day, 
My Lady! ” said the King, bowing and 
bending. 

“ That’s just what it says on this card,” 
cried Margaret and read aloud: 

“Many happy returns of your birthday, our dear, 
We wish, with this little surprise. 

For your stitches have made us quite glad all the 
year, 

With the help of your friends, the One-Eyes. 

“ Mother, Father, and Brother Jim.” 






















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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 










































































